HIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

I UNITED STATES OF 



SLAVERY 



• 



IRRECONCILABLE WITH CHRISTIANITY 



AND 



SOUND REASON; 



OR 



^nli-0laocrg Sirgntncnt. 



Rev. ISAAC V. BROWN, B. 



•All slavery has its origin against natural right." — Judge McLean. 

Dred Scott case. 



PtJBLISHBRS....CHARLES SCOTT AND COxMPANY, 

^ 1 !'\ TRENTON; 



JOHN TERHUNE, 
N. BRUNSWICK. 



1858. 



« 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, June 9, 1857, by 
ISAAC V. BROWN, D. D. 
In the Clerk's OfRce of the District Court of the District of New Jersey. 



T 11 E N T 0 N : 

I'RlNTJiD BY PHILLIPS & BOSWKLL, 

No. 4 Chancery-court. 



-4 



INTRODUCTION 



To the American Colonization Society, with her numer- 
ous state auxiliaries, and to the freemen and philanthro- 
pists in these United States, this argument in favor of 
freedom is very respectfully inscribed. 

Fellow citizens, we are emphatically the successors of 
that noble Band of Patriots who achieved the liberty and 
independence of these United States. The battles of the 
Revolution were fought by our fathers, to wrest from the 
oppressions of arbitrary power, a land to be devoted for 
ever to the great principles of liberty and equality. The 
constitution and government of these United States, in 
their primary organization, were designed to establish and 
secure these principles, on a specific, inviolate, and per- 
petual basis, that the people might transmit them to their 
children and latest posterity, as a magnificent legacy, ac- 
quired by valor, by conflict, and by blood. Hence oUr form 
of government was at first proclaimed to the world, by her 
written charter and living sons, as a great model republic 
for all ages and all climes. Its first announcement was met 
by shouts of admiration and applause, from the lovers of 
freedom around the globe. That immortal instrument, 
while enriched with as much popular liberty, right, and 
power as was judged reconcilable with requisite energy, 
subordination, order, and stability combined, was com- 
pelled, unhappily by circumstances, to permit one foul 



blot to defile the thirteen stars wliicli reflected tlie glory of 
this redeemed and consecrated Asylum of Freedom. That 
blot was slavery — admitted, however, only as a temporary 
stain, to be wiped off with all practicable speed, by patriotic 
wisdom and policy, as well as religion and philanthropy — 
thus fully to redeem the nation from the deep disgrace 
and the deeper crime and guilt of retaining the loathsome 
stigma. 

And now, since the abettors and tools of this debasing, 
cruel, and criminal institution are combining their ener- 
gies, not only to rivet this odious feature upon the land of 
the free, but to extend its oppression, deformity, and guilt 
to untarnished and interdicted territory, both new and old, 
it seems important and necessary to discuss the subject of 
slavery, to exhibit its true character to the public, with a 
view to weaken its power and limit its prevalence in our 
great republic. 

If this essay shall be conducive to that interesting object, 
its chief end will have been accomplished. 



ISAAC Y. BEOWK 

Trenton, October, 1858. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE. 



Introduction 9 

CHAPTER II. 

Analysis of the human organization 11 

CHAPTER III. 

The general nature and effects of slavery — the relation of master and slave 
— the assumption in favor of the former — the injuries resulting to the lat- 
ter. — Pro-slavery opinions stated 16 

CHAPTERIV. 

Opinions of the Princeton Repertory stated — partial reply — demand for a 
divine and positive warrant for slavery — the self-conflicting statements of 
that quarterly, etc 21 

CHAPTER V. 

God's first great command, " Thou shalt love the Lord," — inconsistency of 
slavery with this duty. — The argument stated from " Thou shalt love thy 
neighbor as thyself," — from the injunction, " Look not every man on his 
own things," etc., and from our Saviour's great rule, " Whatsoever ye 
would," etc 27 



CHAPTER VI. 

Argument of pro-slavery men from the Gospel of Jesus Christ and its found- 
ers considered. — Tlie doctrine of adiaphorism, indifference, as an excuse 
for slavery examined. — More concessions and self-refutations presented.— 
The just import of malum in se, etc 34 



6 



CHAPTEE VII. 

PAGE. 



The Princeton writer's attempt to separate between the nature of slavery 
and its vices — his abstraction artful, but not availing — cause and effect in- 
dissoluble — his views narrow — slavery nationally vdthering. — Tolei'ation 
of evil a standing feature of God's government — the parable of tares sup- 
ports our argument 49 

CHAPTER VIII. 

The conduct of Christ and his apostles more fully explained — their policy 
vindicated 58 

CHAPTER IX. 

The apostles' conduct towards slavery was right — the best practicable, con- 
sistent with their character, the public peace, prosperity of the Church — 
a noble example — imitation of God's patient policy 63 

CHAPTER X. 

The argument considered from the severity of the Gospel against idolatry, 
and its gentleness towards slavery. — Slavery in AhraharrCs household, in 
Judea, in Canaan, in Egypt, examined 68 

CHAPTER XI. 

Particular view of God's toleration — its consistency and beauty, etc. — Fal- 
lacy of the argument for slavery from lenity of Jesus Christ farther exhi- 
bited. — The permissive feature in divine government 80 

CHAPTER XII. 

An inquiry into the correctness of several of the Princetonian's opinions and 
speculations in regard to slavery, etc 86 

CHAPTER XIII. 

The abstraction of the Repertory examined on scriptural grounds, and its 
fallacy exposed 90 

CHAPTER XIV. 

An examination of the Princeton writer's definition of slavery — its three com- 
prehensive features — import of the first — natural rights, etc. — Opinions of 
others stated 95 

CHAPTER XV. 

The secon«Z/eai7fre of his definition considered— "the slave's obligation of 
service at the discretion of another," etc 102 



7 



CHAPTER XVI. 

PAGE. 

The third feature of the Repertory's definition of slavery considered — the 
transferable character of the master's claim, etc. — its tendency to encour- 
age the slave trade 108 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Extracts from the constitutions of South Carolina and Louisiana, and espe- 
cially from the Presbyterian church records. — Dr. Breckenridge's re- 
marks. — The testimony of former Assembhes stated and explained. — 
Views respecting the abolition system 112 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

General views of slavery — its origin, progress, early action of southern peo- 
ple in regard to it. — Petition of Virginians. — Constitutional provisions, dif- 
ficulties, duties, etc., of the southern people. — Concluding remarks 131 



ANTI-SLAVERY ARGUMENT. 



CHAPTEE I. 

INTRODUCTION. 

After the programme of Creation was drawn in Eter- 
nity, and the preliminary work performed in the beginning 
of time, God the Father said to his Eternal Eellows, the 
•Second and Third persons of the Trinity, Come let us make 
man in our image and after our likeness : and let him have do- 
miriion. Man was made to sustain elevation and power in 
this lower world, and not to grovel. Therefore, the facul- 
ties of reason, of free-will, and a capacity for moral action 
were implanted within him : and the likeness of the Great 
Eternal was impressed upon him from the beginning. Slave- 
ry never entered into the divine mind, as a constituted or 
recognised feature of his workmanship. It is a fungus, or 
spurious growth, of a blighted soil and degenerate clime, 
nourished and kept alive to this hour by the same element 
of rottenness which at first gave it existence. Its interfer- 
ence with the civil and religious duties of men, individu- 
ally, with the peaceful progress of the Church of Christ, 
with the great question of public morals, and with the po- 
litical harmony, prosperity, and happiness of nations, ren- 
ders it, wherever it exists, an interesting and appropriate 
subject of discussion. And w^hat invests it pre-eminently 
with this character at the present moment, is the fact, that 
many opinions and speculations, considered crude and he- 
retical in character respecting it, have recently been issued 
from the press, in various forms, demanding serious con- 
sideration. 

B 



10 



In our reasonings on slavery, we assume the fact, that 
the African people and all dark-skinned tribes are portions 
of the human race, identical with those of fair complexion, 
"all nations of men being made of one blood." To shed 
light upon this subject, or attain to any just and satisfac- 
toiy conclusions respecting slavery, we must recur to the 
elementary principles of man's intelligent and moral nature 
and relations ; his capacities and responsibilities under the 
divine government, as well as under that of civil and po- 
litical states. 

Blacksione, the great legal oracle of England, tells us, 
that " l^atural liberty consists in a power of acting as one 
thinks fit, without any constraint or control, unless by the 
laws of nature ; being a right inherent in us by birth, as 
one of the gifts of God to man at his creation, when he 
endowed him with the faculty of free will." Locke defines 
it in terms substantially the same, " a state of perfect free- 
dom to order their actions and dispose of their possessions 
and persons as they see fit within the bounds of the law 
of nature, without asking leave or depending upon the will 
of any other man :" and we may add, that true liberty in- 
cludes a right, at discretion, to use the means of cultivat- 
ing our intellectual and moral powers under the guidance 
of reason and sanction of conscience, for our present and 
future benefit, without let or hinderance from any quarter. 

The theory, that to establish true liberty and equality 
among men, they must be equal in endowment and capa- 
city from God, by nature, or by providence, physically, 
morally, and mentally, leads to the absurd and mischiev- 
ous dogma, "that might makes right," which lies at the 
foundation of the most glaring oppressions and cruelties 
existing in the world. 

It is admitted, that when men enter into society, they 
part with a portion of their natural rights, or rather trans- 
fer them to society, with a view of obtaining a more full 
security for those that remain. To this step the uncertain- 
ties arising from the hostility of others, and consequent 
fears for the safety of person and property strongly prompt. 
Burke says, "liberty to individuals is, that they mav do 



11 



what they please," and Paley, " that to do what we will, is 
natural liberty." 

The word slave is of Russian or Sclavonic origin, and is 
derived from the term Sclave, the name of a northern peo- 
ple, who, at an early period, were reduced to subjection in 
the south of Europe. In its import, it is diametrically op- 
posed to liberty. It applies to a person entirely subject to 
the will of another, having no freedom of choice or action, 
whose person, powers, and services are under the control 
of a superior — an owner or a master — for whose benefit or 
pleasure he is required to labor involuntarily without con- 
tract or consent. Many causes contributed to introduce, 
continue, extend, and confirm, and afterwards aggravate, 
the institution of slavery. Prisoners taken in war were at 
an early period held in bondage. The inequalities arising 
out of the various successes and reverses of life were, in 
many instances, employed as an argument to vindicate the 
practice. The superiority of power, followed by acts of spo- 
liation and rapacity perpetrated upon Weak and barba- 
rous nations or tribes, has been pleaded as an authority 
for this cruel institution. Hereditary descent, purchase 
and barter, have been large tributaries to this hateful 
scourge of the human race. 



CHAPTEE II. 

Analysis of the human organization. 

Man, although in ruins, is a rational being, possessing 
understanding, will, afiections, and conscience, the essen- 
tial elements or characteristics of humanity. These facul- 
ties constitute him an intelligent moral agent, responsible 
in society and accountable to God. The Creator has thus 
made him capable of knowing, of serving, and enjoying 
him. 



12 



The first view we take of the hnman organization leads 
us to the conclusion of the poet, that mind makes ike man. 
The essentials of his existence, of his character and life, 
of his end and destiny, are found in his breast, mysteri- 
ously clustered and associated, blended and yet distinct. 
A few elementary faculties, or organs, constitute the whole 
of this delicate, symmetrical, wonderful fabric. This endow- 
ment is sacred, temporarily lent to earth, to be improved 
and employed for lofty purposes and winged for immor- 
tality ; in the meanwhile, it is held in sure custody and 
familiar supervision by its creator, to disenthral it from 
every disability, and to secure its everlasting escape from 
the bondage of corruption and mortality/ Man is such a 
creature, that without these features of mind or spirit, or 
with them paralyzed and debased by neglect, vitiated by 
abuse or perverted by false lights, he sinks to a level with 
the brutes ; but with appropriate and efficient culture and 
refinement, he mounts upward as on eagles' wings, and 
vies with angels. 

There can be no doubt that the Creator designed and ex- 
pected to receive richer tributes of praise and glory from 
the world of mind, intermingling unseen with the material 
creation, than from all the other stupendous productions 
of his six days' work. Hence, by endowing mind with fea- 
tures compounded of rationality and moral sensibility, 
God has linked it to the supreme intelligence of heaven, 
and entwined its spiritual tendrils around his eternal throne ; 
and nothing but the benumbing and deranging power of 
depravity, aggravated by unpropitious outward circum- 
stances and relentless arbitrary violence, can frustrate this 
ennobling system. 

In surveying the mind, the power of percepiion, which 
with memory forms a capacity to admit and accumulate 
knowledge on all subjects, facts, relations, and duties in- 
teresting to man, stands conspicuous in his intellectual 
structure. This faculty ranges abroad through the wide ex- 
panse of the heavens and the earth, gleaning knowledge 
in its flight, and collecting materials to live and act upon. 

In close proximity lies the faculty of reasoning, examin- 



13 



ing, comparing, and estimating objects, relations, motives, 
and obligations, and so forming judgments and conclusions 
on every known subject, relation, and duty of all charac- 
ters and grades incident to humanity connected with time 
and reaching into eternity. In the exercise of this high 
function, it is the Creator's design that the creature should 
enjoy all auxiliary means of illumination, have access to 
all sources and channels of intelligence furnishing or pro- 
mising aid in arriving at just conclusions and fulfilling the 
great end of life. 

In the mental endowment of his rational offspring, God 
has placed in juxta-position with other organs the faculty 
of loillj which is pronounced to be, intellectually and 
morally, the instrunaent by which, or in concert with which, 
the mind, already stored with knowledge, matured and ar- 
ranged by reason and reflection, forms and expresses its 
judgment and purposes, gives vent to its feelings and de- 
sires, and develops the whole series of its internal evolu- 
tions. In the exercise of this faculty of willing, God intend- 
ed, and has clearly manifested in his word, that whatever 
other things were bound fast and stereotyped by immuta- 
ble laws and fixtures, the mind should be free in her voli- 
tions to follow the dictates of the intelligent jDrinciple and 
reasoning powders placed within, as sovereign illuminators 
and directors in this process, in subordination only to his 
spirit. Anything that interferes with the sovereign free 
action of the mind, by unauthorized intrusion, by violent 
irruption or usurpation, destroys the liberty of the mind, 
impairs its responsibility — ^in fact either entirely destroys 
the man or changes his character, his position, his relations, 
in the universe — simply because he has not been permitted 
to act freely upon the light and strength of his internal re- 
sources according to his rational nature, freely to weigh 
motives to action on evidence, to form his own intelligent 
and rational estimate, to yield to what he considers the 
strongest motive, the most interesting object, the most 
moving attractions presented, the most appropriate and 
impressive influence in view of his mind and will. With 
ttkis restriction existing and acting in every crisis, no man 

B* 



14 



is free, and no power insidiously or violently arresting Of 
crippling the free agency of the mind and will can escape 
the anathema which it deserves. 

In this analysis, conscience, which has been called the 
vicegerent of Heaven, stands aloft as " a discerner of the 
thoughts and intents of the heart," overlooking the event- 
ful movements of the inner man, to reprove or sanction 
every successive phase of thought or action. This appropri- 
ate name, when resolved into its simple derivatives, con and 
scio, the school-boy will perceive assigns to this faculty the 
highest intellectual and moral rank, subordinate only to 
the JDwinity, who inspired it and enthroned it in the human 
breast. Quicker than thought, grasping all the lights of 
the understanding, the judgments and conclusions of rea- 
son, and the accumulated stores of memory, it operates, 
by their combined aid and by a kind of intuitive penetra- 
tion, with more than telegraphic despatch in resolving 
every intellectual doubt, and enforcing not only "the 
weightier matters of the law, judgment, and mercy,"' but 
"the mint, anise, and cummin" of every exigence and 
moral crisis. The hallowed sphere which conscience occu- 
pies cannot be entered without rudeness and profanation 
to interrupt her pure, peaceful, and decisive reign over the 
empire of mind. Improvable in her nature, she is also lia- 
ble to deterioration from ignorance, neglect, corrupt ex- 
ample, false instruction, prejudice, and passion. And hence 
she needs constant protection against the incursions of er- 
ror, fostering care and increasing light to animate and sus- 
tain her in her passage by the rocks and quicksands which 
line her pathway. Conscience, properly enlightened and 
trained, in the hands of God is a potent engine to keep the 
world in order, by rendering human governments and laws 
more efficient. Society, in all her departments, feels the 
happy influence of this noble faculty, inspiring social order, 
domestic peace and comfort. By its cultivation, the savage 
and the slave are elevated into rationality, made to put on 
the features of improved humanity, and are, in some meas- 
ure, happily prepared for the sacred service and divine hom- 
age due to God. 



15 



The affections of tlie Heart, wliicli constitute tlie cliafm^ 
tlie sweeteners of life and the glory of humanity, flow from 
the united cultivation and exercise of all the internal 
powers we have briefly named under the direction and cul- 
ture of the holy spirit. Christianity is justly called the re- 
ligion of love. This feature, though last named in this 
psychological glance, is the brightest in the train, and adds 
fresh lustre to all the others. Benevolence is the consum- 
mate crowning excellence of the divine character {for God 
is love) and the most sacred ornament of the spiritual world. 
It constitutes the harmonizing element and cement of the 
universe, and out of it grows a reciprocity, a kind sympa- 
thy, an indissoluble bond of union, between created spirits 
and the Spirit of Eternity. This grand connecting tie be- 
tween himself and human souls God's overflowing love 
prompts him to sustain and diffuse without limit, and es- 
pecially to inspire and propagate, even among the lowest 
ranks of our degenerate race. Hence, at an early stage in 
the progressive development of his plan, when the fulness 
of time had come, he proclaimed his great command, 
" thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with 
all thy strength^ and with all thy mind." This command 
seems very appropriately to follow his preceding gracious 
announcement, " God so loved the world as to give his 
only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him might 
not perish, but have everlasting life." Here love meets love 
in glorious harmony and triumph, and as a chain let down 
from heaven, is adapted to draw up subordinate spirits to 
celestial heights. It reaches to the most dark and depressed 
intelligences, in common with those of higher grades and 
more privileged condition. Its sanctions, its attractions, its 
obligations, its benefits, its hopes and its joys, are the joint 
provision and bestowment of infinite wisdom and love com- 
bined. The poor negro, crushed by bondage and privation, 
and chained down in fetters of darkness and pain equally 
with the philosopher and the sage, is within the reach of 
this law of love, and capable, under christian culture, of 
feeling its power, of tasting its sweetness, and by it climb- 
ing up to glory. 



le 



That tlie African's mind, after all his oppression and de« 
gradation, possesses the faculties and capacities which have 
been exhibited as peculiar to man, is beyond dispute ; and 
that he is thus made capable of the high and holy exercise 
of love to God, none will call in question, after duly con- 
sidering the aids which God has granted and promised to 
render this work both easy and delightful. 



CHAPTEE III. 



Tlie general nature and effects of slavery — the relation of master and slave-* 
the assumption in favor of the former— »the injuries resulting to the latter.—^ 
Pro-slavery opinions stated. 

The whole system of divine legislation for the human 
race contemplates every individual as a proper subject of 
government. Although all men are addressed in the ag- 
gregate, each man, separate and distinct from every other, 
is contemplated as independent on all but God himself. He 
is considered as possessing intellectual, physical, and moral 
powers adapted to the relation he sustains to his maker, 
adequate to self-government and to a life of subjection to 
God's authority, obedience to his will, and accountableness 
at his bar. And we enter into this discussion entertaining 
a decided conviction, that the colored portion of our race 
constitutes an integral part of it, are possessed of similar 
mental and moral powers and responsibilities, are subject 
to the same laws as men in general, entitled to the same 
privileges, bound by the same obligations, destined to the 
same immortality-, and hence stand upon a perfect equality 
with all others of the race. 

I:^'ow slavery invades and mars this beautiful system of 
humanity by intermixing with it jarring elements, by im- 
posing a very grievous and painful privation upon a large 
portion of the human family, arbitrarily and effectually 
^cutting them oif from the privileges, hopes, and happiness 



17 



they have capacities to enjoy and a right to claim. Slavery 
is founded upon the arbitrary assumption that there is a 
natural inequality between man and his fellow man ; that 
in consequence of this, one man has a right to control the 
physical, intellectual, and moral powers and actions of an- 
other; that all men exist, by natural constitution and clas- 
sification, in the distinct order of superior and inferior ; that 
this distinction is properly developed and carried out in 
domestic slavery, in which all the superior rights and pre- 
rogatives of the former class are concentrated and accumu- 
lated in the master, and that the relation of master and 
servant is accommodated to this imaginary primordial con- 
stitution of the human race, which ignores the principle of 
equality and individual independence among men, and re- 
cognises such a distinction or modification of powers, 
rights, and responsibilities as drops the inferior order of 
men in the scale of being below humanity, and resembles 
them to the brutes. For this system of violent distortion 
of original elementary truth there is claimed by its advo- 
cates a divine sanction, without exhibiting the least evi- 
dence of it. 

Hence, of these two classes thus created with dissimilar 
and unequal rights, the master's benefit and happiness are to 
be always chiefiy or exclusively regarded, to the entire 
sacrifice and extinction of the rights, privileges, and hap- 
piness of the inferior class, wherever or whenever there 
arises any conflict or competition between the interest and 
happiness of the master and slave. Hence the individuals 
of the subordinate class are to be considered and treated in 
everything as tributary to the interest and happiness of 
the superior. Their liberty, their independence, their vari- 
ous rights and privileges, everything pertaining to them, 
except the power of breathing, belong to their superiors, 
or is subjected to their will, and may be possessed, con- 
trolled, and used, at their discretion, to the utmost limit, 
whatever burdens, privations, hardships, and sufterings 
may fall or be imposed upon the lower order, as the result 
of this relation. And in this perverted and monstrous 
process, the masters or superiors are constituted the sove- 



18 



reign arbiters and exclusive judges, without appeal, of the 
manner, the degree, and circumstances in which this order 
of things is to be enforced. And moreover, by the same 
supposition, any number of rivals or aspirants may seize 
and obtain, by purchase, exchange, or power, as many hu- 
man beings as come within their reach, and can be made 
available to their benefit or happiness, without the least 
regard to the will, interest, or well-being of the enslaved 
party. 

IsTow if this right to possess, to govern and enjoy ex- 
clusively the immunities of the inferior class of human be- 
ings, has been invested in the superior order, then the 
right and power to enforce these rights must have been 
also granted, for God does everything in order. Hence this 
hypothesis implies that the superiors have a right, at 
pleasure, to destroy the happiness of as many human be- 
ings as they may be able to make available or subservient 
to their own private happiness. As this power is unlimited, 
except by its own nature, it may be exercised at pleasure 
in the widest manner possible. This assumption, in its 
legitimate sequents in favor of the superior order, puts on 
a character of universal monopoly or absorption in relation 
to all the immunities of human nature, of arrogance to- 
wards the government of Almighty God, of hostility to the 
progress of the Gospel, of antagonism to the peacefulness 
and prosperity of all human governments and to the hap- 
piness of the whole human race. 

Furthermore, that the system of slavery exerts a demor- 
alizing and disastrous influence on both the parties involved, 
superiors and inferiors, none can be so blind as not to per- 
ceive. The masters are inflated with pride, selfishness, 
passion, very often licentiousness, as well as cruelty. The 
slaves, kept in ignorance, subject to insults, privations, and 
moral degradation under the absolute power of others, do 
not recognise moral distinctions or accountableness to God. 
Hence, in general, they neither know nor feel any internal 
check to the indulgence of iniquitous propensities or vio- 
lent passion. The corruption of nature is left free from 
every moral restraint, and hence assumes, with shocking 



19 



nniformity, a disgusting phase of vice and pollution. The 
operation of slavery has always been found unfavorable not 
only to general intelligence and good morals, but to na- 
tional wealth and prosperity. It removes from the slaves 
the most efficacious motives to industry and improvement, 
on the one hand, and to frugality and good order, on the 
other. And the masters or owners, prompted either to en- 
tire indolence and repose, or absolute and exclusive reli- 
ance on the labor of their slaves, through pride and ex- 
travagance, have generally failed to become enriched by 
their compulsory slave labor and oppressive policy. Hence 
the individual states occupied by slaves, and the country in 
general in full proportion, have become impoverished by 
the system. Soils naturally very fertile, as in many of 
these United States, have been gradually exhausted and 
reduced to sterility, or had their productiveness very great- 
ly diminished by ineffectual cultivation by slaves or by en- 
tire neglect. This system necessitates, or with certainty 
produces, depravation of heart and impurity of life among 
the slaves. The ordinance of marriage, which is a sacred 
institution established by God to be strictly and perma- 
nently observed between husband and wife, in slave regions 
scarcely exists, thus leading to universal concubinage or 
prostitution. Parental and filial obligations are also made 
light of, and the duties appropriate to those sacred relations 
are not only disregarded in general, but outraged by vio- 
lent disruption and separation of husbands and wives, pa- 
rents and children. These cruel acts, constantly occurring^ 
are disastrous to youth, grievous to parents, corrupting to 
society, wounding to universal humanity, paralyzing to the 
interests of religion and to the Church of Christ, obstruct- 
ing to the cause of humanity and benevolence, and deeply 
offensive to God. 

But the miseries of slavery may be called legion, for they 
are raany ; and if we should attempt a full detail of them, 
we would not know where to begin or to end. The victims 
themselves are immense sufferers from their bondage. The 
single fact of the existence of slavery, or loss of personal 
liberty, among rational men proves that every slave is a 



20 



machine. "Forbidding instruction," and practically with- 
holding all intellectual benefits, will effectually secure to 
slaves mental darkness. Under such a system, indepen- 
dence of thought and action, voluntary choice and the 
rights of conscience, are all abrogated together. The slave's 
course of life and his phase of character are the result of 
that absolute dominion which is constantly maintained 
over him, extending to his outward acts, his physical rela- 
tions and comforts, and to all his mental, social, and moral 
afiinities. In general, the slaves know no sabbaths, have 
no churches, no Sunday schools, no seminaries for improve- 
ment of any kind. Their minds, in the most favored state, 
are a perfect blank. In this condition, under the light of 
gospel day, they are groping their way to eternity, in mid- 
night gloom, out of reach of the available sympathies of 
humanity. Their owners and taskmasters, assuming the 
place of their Creator in arranging all that constitutes and 
concerns the slave, sit in judgment to decide upon the 
quality, the amount, the time, the sphere of labor to be 
performed, their sustenance, their treatment, and their 
condition. All provision for mental and moral culture, ex- 
cept in a very few limited districts, are interdicted by legis- 
lative authority.* 

Thus, as far as it operates, slavery is a complete prostra- 
tion of human liberty, human rights, and human happiness. 
The assumption, that slaves are property, is made an essen- 
tial and prominent part of the system by specific and posi- 
tive legislation in most of the slave states. They are goods 
and chattels on legal record, and in common life victims of 
power and instruments of drudgery, used like all other 
capital as the mere "potentiality of growing rich." The 
slaves being, in the eye of the law, property themselves, 
they can own no valuable thing, take no part in govern- 
ment, have no interest in society, no influence but to ex- 
cite alarm, give offence, and provoke wrath. They have 
no will, no choice, no discretion, no intelligent participa- 

* Within a few years many clusters of slaves situated iu the Atlantic states 
have had their privileges much improved, hut this does not alter the general 
character of slavery. 



21 



tion in anything connected with their earthly state* And 
their eternal interests are left to take care of themselves. 
Their thoughts are chained down to low servility, the spade, 
the mattock, and the hoe, the rice :deld, the cotton form, the 
tobacco plant, the cane plantation, the sugar, molasses, and 
turpentine factory. 

ITotwithstanding these lamentable features of slavery, 
certain writers, mistaking the true nature of the subject, 
have bmached several irrational and unscriptural hypothe- 
ses respecting it, vi^ : 

I. The first class embraces those who maintain that 
slavery is not a crime against man, nor a sin against God, 
is not sinful at all, in whatever shape it may be found ex- 
isting — no evil — especially no malum in se. 

II. The second class includes those who hold that slave- 
ry, inherently or by nature, has no moral character, but 
derives its guilt or innocence from contingencies, and is 
not necessarily in all circumstances sinful. 

III. The third class seems to admit that slavery is an evil, 
but which may be excused or alleviated so far by circum- 
stances as to be stripped of its sinful character. 

Although the points of distinction between these classes 
seem clear and tangible, we shall not in this discussion 
labor particularly to observe the dividing lines, since we 
consider them all in error, and because they appear unavoid- 
ably to approach and slide into one another. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Opinions of the Princeton Repertory stated— partial reply— demand for a divine 
and positive warrant for slavery— the self-conflicting statements of that quar- 
terly, &c. 

Among the writers above referred to, is one who pro- 
nounces slavery not a malum in se, that is not sinful in its 
own nature, but rather a neutrality or contingency, " good 

c 



22 



or bad according to circumstances." He states it as his 
opinion, that slavery, without being sinful, may exhibit not 
only privation of freedom, but other very rabid features^ 
several of which he enumerates, such as "/or6ic?(im^ instruc- 
tion to slaves, insults and oppression from the whites, inade- 
quate remuneration, intellectual ignorance, moral degrada- 
tion," &c. After this appalling catalogue, this writer 
gravely tells us "that these evils may all exist without 
admitting that slavery is itself a crime 

The writer in the Kepertory assumes two grounds in his 
attempt to vindicate slavery, both of which we shall en- 
deavor to prove untenable. 

His first ground is — 

I. That slavery is not in itself sinful, because it belongs 
to a class of things which derive their moral character from 
circumstances, and may be right or wrong, good or bad. 

n. His second ground is, that slavery exists under a 
divine sanction, which he derives inferentially from the 
silence of Christ and his apostles in regard to it. 

This writer first seems to teach that slavery is not em- 
braced in God's prohibited catalogue ; that it is neutral, 
neither commanded nor forbidden, neither good nor bad. But 
very soon, as may be seen, he changes his mind, and ad- 
mits, even asserts, that slavery, in its most essential and 
vital features, is an infraction of the divine law, and in- 
cluded under its condemnation. He admits the old scrip- 
tural declaration, that slavery is manstealing. He teaches 
strongly that withholding the price of the laborer is a griev- 
ous sin or violation of the law of God. He denounces slave- 
ry as a wicked thing, because it interferes with the rights, 
duties, and happiness of husbands and wives, of parents 
and children. And now, we ask, with what shadow of pro- 
priety can he say that slavery is not a malum in se ? that it 



* The principal document expressing these opinions, which we shall take 
liberty to refer to, is an article " on slavery," included in an 8vo. volume of ex- 
tracts from the Princeton Repertory, recently published by Wiley and Putnam, 
New York and London, from page 282 to 312. Several other cotemporary pam- 
phlets and discussions on the subject of slavery are incidentally involved in this 
argument without being distinctly designated. 



28 



is a neutral thing, neither commanded nor forbidden, a mere 
contingency, neither good nor had. This writer is not only 
in conflict with himself, but with the sacred Scriptures, in 
expressing these views. An apostle tells us, with appro- 
priate precision and force, that sin, in whatever shape it ex- 
ists, is a malum in sc. The scripture definition of this ma- 
lum is plain and familiar to all, it is " a transgression of the 
law of God," or what is equivalent, "it is a want of con- 
formity to the law of God." This writer admits that there 
is a divine law which condemns slavery in its aggregate 
form and in several of its constituent features, and yet he 
pronounces it no sin, no malum in se. Then sin is no evil 
in his view. Eesisting the authority and will of God, vio- 
lating his command, ignoring his wisdom, must be a trifling 
harmless thing in his estimation. But this point, which is 
very important, will come up as we progress for more par- 
ticular and extended examination. 

This writer commences his vindication of slavery by an 
attempt to establish a distinction or separation between 
it and its injurious consequences or effects, a spurious effort, 
which pervades and seems to pervert the whole article in 
question. In regard to this, our remarks at present will be 
brief, but more extended in the sequel. That slavery in 
itself is nothing, not liable for the crimes and cruelties 
committed under it by slaveholders, is an unfortunate de- 
lusion, out of which this writer ought to be awakened, and 
against which all others should be guarded. Inadequate re- 
muneration, an expression he employs, is deceptive, because 
it implies the payment of wages in part, but not in full. 
There never has been any system devised or practised in 
our country to secure to slaves payment for their labor. 
The miserable pittances, in the form of gardens and hovels, 
in some instances granted to them, is a mere nominal allow- 
ance to preserve their lives, to get clear of trouble, to in- 
duce some extra service from slaves for the purpose of di- 
minishing the expense of their support, and at most yield- 
ing an amount not worth naming. The English capitalists 
and slaveowners who first introduced slaves upon their 
southern plantations avowed, as their motive, that under 



24 



their previous system of management by white labor they 
could not make their farms profitable, and hence resorted 
to the importation of slaves stolen from Africa, whose per- 
sons and labor they could procure for nothing but the 
mere cost of their sustentation. The inadequate remune- 
ration he speaks of is very little different from complete 
and universal robbery. These and kindred sentiments in- 
tended to vindicate slavery, being thus in various forms 
imprudently forced upon both church and state at this un- 
happy crisis in the ecclesiastical and political history of our 
country, we feel constrained to approach their abettors with 
the conservative question, Quo warranto f As slaver}^ in 
christian lands is extremely offensive to the moral feelings 
of men in general, it is certainly the duty of those who 
advocate it to exhibit some rational and satisfactory war- 
rant for it. iN'ever yet has anything been produced in the 
slightest degree sustaining this character. Bold and reck- 
less assertions and assumptions, opposed by facts under 
circumstances from their nature incapable of proof, have 
been the only reliance of pro-slavery men to excuse this 
institution, and commend it to others. 

As God is the greatest, best of all beings, the maker and 
governor of the universe, whom all men are bound to serve 
and glorify, his will must necessarily be to them the rule 
of their action, wherever it can be discovered. The Bible 
is the expression or transcript of God's will, and thus the 
rule of man's life. Being infinitely raised above all models, 
he is a law unto himself^ and his written law is identified 
with the essential attributes of his nature. On slio:ht ex- 
amination it will be found that the existence of slavery is 
incompatible with the Gospel, whose ruling principles ema- 
nate from God and are hostile to slavery; and, when 
brought fully to bear upon it, will certainly produce its ex- 
termination. With the truth of this, the Princeton writer 
seems to have been duly impressed when he wrote the 
opinion in regard to domestic slavery, that it " should be 
left to the operation of those general principles of the Gos- 
pel which have peacefully destroyed domestic slavery 
throughout the greater part of Christendom." — p. 286. In 



25 



accomplisbing tliis great work of benevolence, God is a 
sovereign, and is certainly at liberty to select his own 
method of procedure in communicating his will to his 
creatures. He may prohibit and destroy any sinful habits 
■or systems of action among his creatures, in any manner 
and at any time agreeable to himself, by specific peremp- 
tory interdict, by more protracted statutory provision, or 
by incorporating into his system of legislation and instruc- 
tion such principles and elementary powers and require- 
ments as will, at his set time, deliver and purify his crea- 
tures from flagrantly corrupt and guilty practices. And 
whether God choose to proceed by direct and immediate, 
or indirect and more gradual process, the command is as 
distinctly given, the process as specifically adopted, and the 
result as certainly secured in the one case as in the other. 
Certainly the latter mode possesses decided advantages 
over the former. A positive prohibition for the suppression 
of slavery might be effectual for its discontinuance in one 
nation at a given period, but make no provision, exert no 
influence for its extinction in other lands and at later pe- 
riods. Now the Gospel contains principles and precepts, 
integral elements susceptible of universal application, pos- 
sessing irresistible power, and so designed that, when fully 
carried out, they must be fatal to human bondage in all 
countries and for ever. 

The Princeton essayist, in contradiction to the spirit and 
letter of his essay, as manifested elsewhere, here confirms 
our statement by referring to the experience of past ages, 
Christianity, he says, has abolished both political and do- 
mestic bondage wherever it has had free scope. He after- 
wards adds, " one denies that the Bible condemns all in- 
justice, cruelty, oppression, and violence.^' — ^p. 280. Hence 
it most certainly condemns davery, which is in practice, by 
universal consent, proclaimed to be a grand congeries of 
these and kindred crimes. The writer goes on to particu- 
larize some features of the Gospel in confirmation of this 
.general principle. "It enjoins a fair compensation for labor ; 
it insists on the moral and intellectual improvement of all 
<€lasses of men ; it condemns all infractions of marital and 

c* 



26 



parental rights; in short, it requires not only tliat free 
scope should be allowed to human improvement, but that 
all suitable means should be employed for the attainment 
of that end." — ^p. 300. The concessions here made, and the 
plain incontestable principles laid down, " that the Gospel 
insists on the moral and intellectual improvement of all 
classes of men ; that it requires not only that free scope 
should be allowed to human improvement, but that all 
suitable means should be employed for the attainment 
of that end, are sufficient of themselves to paralyze all pro- 
slavery arguments. — p. 300. How can these sentiments, thus 
fully admitted, be reconciled with the existence of slavery 
at all ? There is nothing upon earth which more directly 
and forcibly opposes " the moral and intellectual improve- 
ment of all classes of men" than the oppressive and debas- 
ing system of slavery, wherever it exists. The same pas- 
sage proclaims, that the internal spirit and structure of the 
Gospel are hostile to slavery, and tend directly to eradicate 
it from among men ; that the continuance of it is a per- 
petual and positive violation of the letter and spirit of 
Christianity — all truths which no rational man can deny. 
And yet the same writer tells us, in the next breath, that 
slaveholding is no crime, no sin, not a malum in se ! But let 
us hear him again : "If any set of men have servants, bond 
or free, to whom they refuse a proper compensation for 
their labor, they violate a moral duty and an express com- 
mand of Scripture." And yet he says slavery is no sin. 
Then there is no guilt in violating a moral duty, an ex- 
press command of Scripture. But once more at present^ 
(p. 281), "We readily admit that if God does condemn 
all the parts of which slavery consists, he condemns slave- 
ry itself" This is the converse of what he has before 
said. On careful examination, and from the writer's con- 
fession in great measure, it appears that the word of God 
is a complete system of prohibition against slavery in the 
aggregate and in all its component parts. Analyze slavery 
from beginning to end, and you cannot find a feature in it 
which is warranted or excused by the letter or spirit of 
Christianity. The single act of taking away the liberty of 



27 



a man is in itself an enormity next to murder in the sight 
of God and man, incurring the blackest guilt and deserving 
the heaviest punishment. Do not our civil courts continu- 
ally, at almost every term, pronounce men innocent who 
with force, and sometimes by fatal power, resist assaults 
upon their personal liberty and rights ? Privation of liber- 
ty strikes at the root and glory of humanity, annihilates 
the brightest feature and ornament of our rational nature : 
it includes in it every other species of crime and grade of 
guilt, and it is pre-eminently the sin to which the general 
principle of the Gospel may be applied, " he that sinneth 
in one point is guilty of all." And yet this writer tells us 
that Christ approved of slavery. That the infinitely wise 
God at first designed to make his rational moral offspring 
in every sense free ; that freedom is necessary to make rea- 
sonable creatures accountable in the sight of God ; that it 
constitutes the highest characteristic glory of man and the 
supreme dignity and happiness of God's moral and intelli- 
gent creation, are propositions too simple and self-evident 
to need proof— they rest upon the same evidence as axioms 
or first truths in moral science, usually called the light or 
the conviction of conscience. And we might justly say, 
that the guilt of slavery jper se, in its own nature, may be 
resolved and established by referring it to the same first 
principles of elementary thought and reason. An immor- 
tal accountable mind bound in fetters is a shocking spec- 
tacle, an anomaly, an absurdity. 



CHAPTEE V. 

God's first great command, '* Thou shalt love the Lord,"— inconsistency of slave" 
ry with this duty.— The argument stated from " Thou shalt love thy neigh- 
bor as thyself," from the injunction, "Look not every man on his own things,^* 
&c., and from our Saviour's great rule, "Whatsoever ye would," &c. 



The first great command, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy 
God with all thy heart," which God gave to man as a puri- 



2g 

fying element in his vast system of intelligent creation, 
"will expel slavery and all its spawn of corruption and crime, 
wherever its genuine power is felt. Love is the supreme 
perfection of the divine nature. Hence the Apostle's de- 
claration, that "Grod is love." And this is the crowning 
grace with which he intends to bless and beautify the 
moral world. The christian's love to God is traced to Je- 
hovah's love to him, as its producing cause. ""We love 
him, because he first loved us." This reciprocal love must 
be viewed as the predominating and harmonizing element 
of the intelligent universe. God cannot fail to approve 
and love infinite excellence and loveliness. Hence, from a 
necessity of his own nature, he must require all his moral 
offspring to love the same object. The mind of man, in 
endowment and moral elevation, cannot be measured by 
any earthly meter. Under appropriate culture, it is capable 
of occupying the highest sphere in the universe next to 
angels and to God. The exercise of love is, therefore, the 
noblest, the happiest that any creature in the universe can 
exercise or aspire after. Love to God constitutes a harmo- 
nizing element, for the introduction and prevalence of 
which all the resources of universal empire are pledged. 
" All things shall work together for good to them that love 
God." By this one off'ering the creature is inexpressibly 
exalted, the Creator is praised and declaratively glorified. 
"No creature can make a more direct, sacred, and enduring 
contribution to creation than by loving its author and cele- 
brating his matchless perfection. Without the exercise of 
this noble faculty, man could never reach the end of his 
being nor secure his highest happiness. 

Slaves, violently and cruelly deprived of their universal 
rights, crushed under ignorance and bondage, confined 
down by loiv living and hard labor, are reduced to the most 
depressed and deplorable state, stereotyped in their hope- 
less misery and degradation. Wliat a spectacle ! Their in- 
tellectual powers, if not entirely extinguished, are rendered 
torpid and dark. Hence if the Gospel shines, it shines not 
unto them, for they are not qualified to receive it ; they are 
kept in blindness and indifference as to every moral im- 



29 



provement ; the attainment of knowledge, the culture and 
various training of the heart and conscience, which are es- 
sentially necessary to a right understanding of duty, love of 
God and obedience to his laivs, are rendered morally impossi- 
ble for slaves by public interdict. The offer of salvation, if 
made to them in their debased condition, would serve only 
to discover and to prove the chilling and stupifying effect 
of slavery upon minds and faculties in other circumstances 
capable of rising to fellowship with saints and angels, and 
offering acceptable homage at the eternal throne. 

But, in the midst of these appalling and insurmountable 
embarrassments, the first great command of God, " Thou 
shalt love the Lord thy God," falls upon the poor prostrate 
manacled slave with infinite authority, power, and im- 
pressiveness just as upon others, without appeal or evasion. 
The slave is deprived of all power to obey, deeply op- 
pressed, intellectually and morally disabled, as to making 
a movement towards compliance with God's holy will. The 
crime and the guilt of this moral delinquency most justly 
fall upon those who have plunged the slaves and hold them 
in this wretched bondage and incapacity to serve God. Let 
the captive go free, and enjoy the advantages common to 
free men, and he may rise to God. Such is the genius of 
Christianity, that the meanest human reptile, with ordinary 
instruction and culture, may understand, appreciate, and 
enjoy its invitations, its teachings, its promises, its warn- 
ings, its covenants, its atoning blood, and its inspiring 
hopes. But the poor slave is denied the privilege of wash- 
ing away his moral filthiness in the fountain opened for 
him and all mankind in the house of David. Chained down 
in outer darkness, he lives on without God and without hope. 
It is the caste of slavery, riveted upon him by the tyranny 
and persevering oppression of the slaveholding system, that 
dooms him to an earthly career and eternal destiny of 
wretchedness. And yet the deluded advocates of this high- 
handed cruelty continually repeat the absurdity — no sin I 
no crime ! Just and merciful God ! where shall we go to 
find crimes of deepest die and damning guilt, if not here ? 

To the first commandment, " Thou shalt love the Lord 



30 



thy God with all thy heart," our Saviour adds a second, 
which, he says, " is like unto the first," Thou shalt love 
thy neighbor as thyself." These two primary commands, 
agreeing as to their authority, their motives, their infi.u- 
ences, and their end, show a general resemblance in cha- 
racter, and exhibit a combined and concentrated force for 
the elevation and happiness of mankind. Hence our Sa- 
viour adds, upon these two hang the law and the prophets." 
They thus constitute an epitome of the Gospel of Christ, 
the chief duties of men, and the aggregate requirements 
which God has laid upon them. It is assumed that the man 
who loves God, whom he has not seen, will not fail to love 
his neighbor, whom he has seen. The gospel import of the 
word neiglihor may be well ascertained by examining the 
parable of the good Samantan. There this term is employed 
to designate man in the most wide and comprehensive 
sense, every man possessing the faculties of humanity, 
however remote in situation or inferior in condition, or 
variegated in form or appearance. All men are here viewed 
as upon a common level or equality. The doctrine of love 
is founded in the nature of God, and enforced by his high 
and holy example as well as authority. It was evidently 
intended by him to govern all his rational creatures. Hence 
we find it, in the first law of God ever given to man, pro- 
nounced under the highest sanction, ''lam the Lord." 
Lev. XIX. 18. Sympathy and benevolence towards all crea- 
tures associated with us in the relations of life to a degree 
equalling our own self-love, honest, sincere, and exemplary, 
were then announced as the law of God's universal empire, 
to be immediately and for ever observed. In the second 
commandment, we see merely the carrying out or continua- 
tion of the divine ordinance by Moses. This law of kind- 
ness embraces in its scope not only physical but moral 
benefits in all their variety and extent. 

Men may regard themselves in many things, their honor, 
advantage, and happiness, the prosperity of their souls, of 
their families and kindred. But this law of Christ com- 
mands us to entertain the same just, liberal, and benevo- 
lent feelings towards all others as to ourselves ; to make the 
same exertions, self-denials, and sacrifices when necessary 



31 



for their good ; to labor and contribute for their benefit ; 
to extend to them relief in trouble, supplies in want, pro- 
tection in danger, deliverance in oppression. Kow let any 
judicious candid man ask, is the spirit and substance of 
this second commandment of Christ in the slightest degree 
compatible with the principles, the habits, the arbitrary 
power, the privation and oppression, exhibited in the sys- 
tem of slavery ? It is evident there is a shocking contra- 
riety to it in the occurrences of every day in the whole 
system of slaveholding. 

The just and benevolent spirit of the Gospel may also 
be strongly inferred from the following injunction, " Look 
not every man on his own things, but every man also on 
the things of others." These injunctions are intended to 
extinguish selfishness, avarice, covetousness, and the whole 
catalogue of worldly, carnal, and corrupt passions, which 
find such ample space for oppressive and injurious exercise 
in this evil world, and to inspire feelings of justice, liber- 
ality, compassion, and kindred virtues in the breasts of all 
men towards one another, even towards those who are in- 
ferior by nature, or are made so by calamity, by misfortune, 
by their own imprudence or neglect, by the violence of 
others, by the permission or positive act of Almighty God* 
A just and equal regard towards dependents, unfortunates, 
and slaves would remedy at once a very great proportion 
of the unhappiness and suffering prevalent among men, 
and entirely banish slavery from the world. From these re- 
marks, it seems evident, beyond a doubt, that slavery ex- 
ists in every phase of it, except where transiently inflicted 
as a punishment for crime, by resisting the authority of 
God, by neglecting the Gospel of Jesus Christ, by perse- 
vering violation of his most just and holy enactments for 
human happiness, by withholding from slaves those equit- 
able and reasonable benefits and equalities, privileges and 
enjoyments, which are the common birthright of mortals. 

But our Lord himself has furnished a still more pointed 
and positive precept, entirely subversive of all unequal, ar- 
bitrary, and fictitious distinctions, " Whatsoever ye would 
that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." 

The nature of man is such that the whole race is 



Si 

associated and bound together by mutual obligations to be- 
nevolence, sympathy, and helpfulness in every emergency 
requiring aid. But this law is so indefinitely marked in the 
Gospel that it is difficult of detection and application. It 
depends upon so many circumstances, facts, and reasonings, 
always obscure and constantly changing, that the whole 
system of obligation is easily evaded or stripped of its real 
character and binding force. Now this rule of our Saviour 
narrows down to a point, and confines within very definite 
limits, the whole amount of human obligation to liberality 
and kindness, and furnishes most happy and efficacious 
aids for settling every question of conflicting claims of re- 
ciprocal justice and benevolence. Selfish desires, covetous, 
excessive, and vicious demands and tumultuous importuni- 
ties for aid, are all, in this rule, referred to one simple 
tangible discriminating point, or touchstone, by recurring 
to which the will of the great Legislator and the duty of 
every individual may be as clearly, promptly, and positively 
ascertained as by a distinct voice from Heaven. Thus, by 
establishing a general rule, we bring at once a multitude of 
separate cases to a general standard. By looking at this 
rule one moment, we hear a voice issuing from it as from 
the highest heavens, " Thou shalt neither make nor hold a 
slave ;" whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, 
do ye to them. If the authority of the law is regarded, 
there is an end of slavery for ever, because no man would 
wish to be made a slave himself. Indeed the general order 
or command, in its present form, possesses many advan- 
tages over the specific precept or any other form of pro- 
cess that can be adopted to accomplish the same end. It 
operates and moves with a wide comprehensive scope, em- 
bracing at once all the relations and duties of life ; it fur- 
nishes an appropriate and luminous directory for all human 
action, in defining rights, in harmonizing conflicts, in solv- 
ing profound and critical questions of interest and of 
honor, of charity and munificence. It applies equally to 
individual men and to nations at large ; it is not easily sus- 
ceptible of mistake or abuse. Slavery cannot exist where 
this rule is observed. 
And the prohibitory injunction, implied as a counterpart 



88 



— Qiiod iibi fieri, non vis, alteri ne feceris, i. e. you may not 
do to others what you are unwilling they should do to you, 
possesses equal fitness and force. We find, says Sir Matthew 
Hale, among the ancient J ews and the Heathen this senti- 
ment in so great esteem that a Koman emperor selected it 
fi)r his motto, and caused it to be written in several parts of 
his palace in letters of gold. There is certainly perfect 
equity and kindness in this divine edict, whether we con- 
template its positive or negative aspect. Under both views, 
it is a perfectly conspicuous and self-evident rule, always 
shining in full splendor. It cannot easily be mistaken or 
misinterpreted. It is an honest, simple, and standing ap- 
peal to every generous and noble feeling of our nature, 
especially to the heart and conscience of every man in re- 
gard to his treatment of others. "When a case occurs in- 
volving either branch of this point of duty, the question 
will arise — Am I willing that a man should do to me what 
I am about to do to him ? And again, on the other hand — 
With what shadow of justice can I do that to any man 
which I consider unjust and improper for him to do to me ? 
To enable us to answer these inquiries, we need not con- 
sult a critic or casuist. Common sense and an honest 
mind, governed by justice and kindness, immediately fur- 
nish an appropriate response — Do to others what you would 
have them do to you, and inversely. The sanction as well as 
source of this rule is divine. It is irrevocable in its na- 
ture and weighty as eternity. Liberty, equality, justice, 
and reciprocal obligation cannot be expressed more clearly 
than here, even in a direct communication from God. 
Wherever human powers, interests, passions, and caprices 
come into collision, or even into contact, here is the touch- 
stone without cavil or appeal. Under the infallible guid- 
ance of this precept, so clear and irresistible, slavery can 
never justly be sanctioned upon earth. This rule alone 
provides for its positive and total exclusion from all human 
governments and society. And they who profess respect 
to the authority, will, and pleasure of the Lord Jesus Christ 
have no alternative left to them but obedience or criminal 
revolt. 

D 



84 



CHAPTER VI. 

Argument of pro-slavery men from the Gospel of Jesus Christ and hs Ibunders 
considered. — The doctrine of adiaphorism, indifference, as an excuse for slavery 
examined. — More concessions and self-refutations presented. — The just import 
of malum in se, Sic. 

But the advocates of slavery tell us that this institution 
is not sinful, because as they imagine, according to the 
Mosaic history, it existed under the Old Testament admin- 
istration of the Church, under the Jewish ritual in later 
days, and moreover, they add, is recognised especially by 
the inspired writers of the New Testament without rebuke 
or condemnation. But when these alleged facts and the 
circumstances attending them are carefully examined and 
explained, the argument in favor of slavery drawn from 
them dwindles into nothing. 

The writer in the Eepertory informs us, that as an ag- 
gravated form of slavery existed through the Roman em- 
pire with the full knowledge of Christ and his apostles, and 
they raised no direct exclamation against it, uttered no 
heavy denunciation of slaveholding, nor insisted on imme- 
diate emancipation, did not appeal to the passions of men 
against the evils of slavery, nor adopt any course of oppo- 
sition to it, which he himself thinks would have produced 
universal agitation, that is, since they were not practically 
abolitionists in their conduct and public preaching, they 
must have thought slavery a very harmless, innocent thing ; 
that it had nothing wrong in its nature, nor criminal in its 
operation : and from this view of the subject he draws the 
inferential argument, that slaveholding is neither a sin nor 
a crime. This writer even adds, that the first teachers of 
Christianity, instead of doing anything to oppose or de- 
stroy slavery, rather approved or promoted it. The whole 
of this, on examination, appears very inconsistent with the 
writer's opinions and views expressed in other parts of his 
essay. After in connection asking, with great emphasis in 
substance, how could the Lord and his apostles shut their 
eyes against the enormities of this slaveholding system, if 



indeed it were a great offence against God and man ? "Bid 
they temporize with a heinous evil because it was common 
and popular ? Did they abstain from exhorting masters to 
emancipate their slaves, though an imperative duty, from 
fear of consequences?" — p. 277. So far considering this 
language, and the argument which appears to be raised 
upon it, every reader would suppose that Christ and his 
apostles had really takeji no step, contemplated no measure or 
system of action, calculated to check slavery and to accom- 
plish its extinction in the world. 

But the writer soon corrects this unjust insinuation, by 
entirely changing the tone of his essay. To the question, 
how did they treat it? that is slavery, his language is just 
what we would select in expressing our anti-slavery views, 
and in vindicating the blessed author of our holy religion 
from the slanderous imputation, this writer and others had 
appeared to throw out against him, of approving, and even 
indirectly promoting the work of slavery and slaveholding, 
the most criminal, polluting, and disgusting scourge with 
which humanity has ever been afflicted. How did they treat 
it ? The writer answers — not by denunciation of slavery, 
as necessarily and universally sinful ; not by declaring that 
all slaveholders were menstealers and robbers ; not by in- 
sisting on immediate emancipation from the masters ; not 
by appealing to the passions of men on the evils of slavery, 
or by the adoption of a system of universal agitation." Thus 
far we agree perfectly with the course here ascribed to the 
Saviour, and even more strongly and heartily do we con- 
cur in what follows. No, no, says the writer, on the contrary, 
" it was by teaching the true nature, dignity, equality, and 
destiny of men; by inculcating the principles of justice 
and love, and by leaving these principles to produce 
their legitimate effects in ameliorating the condition of all 
classes of society;" of course bond and free. — p. 275. He 
afterwards, with the utmost propriety, declares, " "We think 
no one will deny that the jplan adopted by the Saviour and 
his immediate followers must he the correct plan, and there- 
fore obligatory upon us." This is precisely our view of the 
subject. And then, in illustration and commendation of 



36 



our Lord's system for exterminating slavery completely and 
for ever by the internal and resistless energy of the princi- 
ples of justice and equality, truth and love, above recited, 
the writer assures us of the great and important historical 
fact, that Christianity has already proved its adaptation and 
power by these internal princi2:)les to accomplish the signal 
and blessed triumphs which he ascribes to it, when placed 
in a condition to exert its natural and full moral force. And 
he very truly states, that " the natural and peaceful mode of 
extinction for slavery is the gradual elevation of slaves, in 
knowledge, virtue, and property, to the point at which it 
is no longer desirable or possible to keep them in bondage." 
This mode of reasoning designates the course pursued by 
colonization and anti-slavery men. It is in this way, our 
essayist says, that Christianity has abolished both political 
and domestic slavery, wherever it has had full scope, by its 
very nature and operation on the hearts and lives of men?' 
We, the opposers of slavery, desire to breath Christ's spirit, 
to walk in his steps, to use his means, to employ his argu- 
ments ; and we anticipate in due time the certain and com- 
plete triumph of his holy, peaceful, and irresistible princi- 
ples and actions. Indeed christians are bound to adopt his 
course : and if they pursue any other or opposing system 
they violate at every step the example of Christ and the 
order of his Gospel. This example of Christ is open, visi- 
ble to the whole universe ; the argument from silence is se- 
cret and concealed. Instead of opposing the spirit or letter 
of the law and example of the Eedeemer and his followers, 
as left on record and exhibited in actual life, we anti-slavery 
men exemplify and confirm them both."' — ^ \ - In pursu- 
ance of this train of reasoning, the writer before us speci- 
fies several prominent points at which the Gospel has liter- 
ally commenced its attack upon the institution of slavery. 
"It enjoins a fair compensation for labor; it insists on the 
vioral and intellectual improvement of all classes of men ; it 
condemns all infractions of marital and parental rights, in 
short it requires not only that free scope should be allowed 
to human improvement, but that all suitable means should 
be employed for the attainment of that end." He adds, 



87 



^'^ If any set of men have servants, bond or free, to whom 
they refuse a proper compensation for their labor, they vio- 
late a moral duty and an express command of Scripture." 
—p. 303. 

After such illustrations and broad admissions as these 
and the preceding, it is utterly unaccountable that this wri- 
ter should persist, against his own positive declarations, in 
asserting that slavery is not sinful — no sin — m crime ! Sin, 
we are told in the epistle of James, is the transgression of the 
law of God, or want of conformity/ to it. This writer shows us 
that slavery, in many points which he designates, is a trans- 
gression of the divine law — slavery as it is universally 
known to exist in these United States, which is here re- 
ferred to. It is then of course a sin against God, a guilty 
thing in his sight, and should be so accounted universally 
in human view. It appears then, from the writer's repre- 
sentations, that Christ and his apostles, to extinguish 
slavery, did adopt the most appropriate and powerful 
means infinite wisdom could suggest to perform the work 
proposed in a quiet unoffending manner, without disturbing 
or exciting the masses of mankind to overthrow the de- 
praved system of human slavery and introduce universal 
freedom. They acted in a manner consistent with them- 
selves and with the letter and "spirit of that new heaven- 
born religion which they came to preach and to establish 
upon earth, and at the same time to set a sacred example 
for the observance of succeeding generations, while slavery 
continued to infect and pollute the atmosphere of this 
world. 

The Princeton advocate of slavery calls to his aid an an- 
eient distinction in morals, used at Kome long before the 
Gospel was introduced, which does not appear calculated 
to strengthen his cause. " Domestic slavery," he says, "be- 
longs in morals to the adiaphora, to things indifferent. They 
may be expedient or inexpedient, right or wrong, accord- 
ing to circumstances.'' Slavery "is not necessarily sinful. 
It is a question of circumstances, and not a malum in <se." 
Another writer, who appears to be a disciple of the former, 
iby adopting his phraseology quite closely, tells us that 



8f 



slavery " is not a malum in se ; it is a relation that may be 
justified by circumstances. Slaveholding or slavery is not 
necessarily and in all circumstances sinful." These opin- 
ions appear to be so nearly allied and closely resembled 
that they may be viewed together. 

The latter of these writers, in another place, evidently 
has before his mind some of the confusions and conflicts 
which slavery produces in human life and civil policy. This 
may be inferred from such passages as these : " The relation 
of master and slave may be lawful in Virginia at the pre- 
sent time, but is it lawful in ISTew Jersey or in ITew Eng- 
land? And will it always be lawful in Virginia? I appre- 
hend not." These secular incidental views we desire to 
leave for adjustment to statesmen and politicians, and to 
form our opinions at another stand-point, and to refer them 
for decision to a higher tribunal. From the beginning we 
have desired to estimate and exhibit the character of the 
slaveholding system not so much by its earthly fruits as 
by its graduation under the divine government. Among 
men and in human legislation every one sees variegated 
types of slavery and perpetual changes corresponding with 
the predominating fancy, passion, or interest of society^ 
all fluctuating in conformity with the fickleness and insta- 
bility of this world. 

In our discussion we would regard only the moral code, 
the infinite perfection and sovereign authority of God, and 
make our appeal to him as the great and just umpire in 
settling this important and interesting question. Slavery 
has, indeed, physical and political influences of vast extent 
and calamitous power ; but at present, as far as possible, 
we would waive the consideration of them, believing it far 
better to pursue a course less exciting and agitating to the 
public mind, and affording an opportunity to all persons, 
even to those interested by participation in slavery, to 
come up calmly, dispassionately, free from the perversions 
of prejudice, to an honest view of this mighty and mo- 
mentous question. We therefore desire to leave this sub- 
ject, except where unavoidably drawn into it, where it is 
constitutionally established and legalized through the 



89 



Union, and to make it our aim to elucidate its moral quali- 
ties and responsibilities under the law and government of 
the great Supreme of all worlds. Without this there ap- 
pears, in our view, but little prospect that our public senti- 
ment will ever be established on uniform and correct prin- 
ciples, purified from contaminating ingredients, harmo- 
nized, amalgamated, and compacted sufficiently to enable 
the American people to act in concert, with concentrated 
wisdom, patriotism, and power, peacefully to exterminate 
the many-headed monster. As directly conflicting with 
these thoughts, it is deplorable and deeply discouraging, in 
the view of philanthropists, to see men of talents, piety, 
and professed devotion to the good of our race, with com- 
bined counsel laboring to remove out of sight the broad 
foundations of God's eternal kingdom of truth and righte- 
ousness, and to set up mere volatile coiitingent circumstances 
as pivots on which the infinitely exalted and magnificent 
physical and moral government of Almighty God shall un- 
ceasingly turn or stand in bondage or obeisance to human 
passion, selfishness, and caprice. 

These writers, along with the new distinctions they ap- 
ply to slavery for the sake of brevity and clearness, ought 
to assume a new name for their theory. The two terms in 
which they appear to agree in designating slavery are indif- 
ferentism and circumstantialism. On one essentially important 
point they are opposed, at right angles, to one another. The 
Princeton writer says repeatedly, that slavery is jight, so 
considered by the Saviour, not a malum in se. Ilis disciple 
and associate asserts that " manstealing is a malum in se, 
and can be justified by no circum^stances whatever." He 
afterwards admits that " slavery originated by the wicked- 
ness of manstealing and by a violation of the laws of God." 
He tells us that neither under the old nor new dispensation 
was slavery recognised as lawful. Accordingly he teaches 
" that it is in discredit generally throughout Christendom." 
After such admissions and declarations, every one would 
expect to find him a real honest and consistent anti-slavery 
man ; but this he cannot be, if his language does not de- 
ceive us. "Slavery, after all," he says, "is a relation that 



40 



may be justified by circumstances.'' Then be is a pro-slavery 
man to tbe full extent. Kot perceiving the difierence be- 
tween circumstances controlling the continuance of slavery 
where it is, and vindicating the guilt of slavery, rendered 
immoveable at present by insurmountable obstacles, he 
makes the General Assembly of 1818, which was probably as 
strong an anti-slavery company of men as ever met upon 
earth, a set of sympathizers and advocates of it. Sympathiz- 
ing with involuntary sufferers from slavery, entailed upon 
them by uncontrollable causes, such persons as those spo- 
ken to or addressed by the assembly of 1818 is as different 
from sympathy for willing and criminal partakers in its 
crimes and cruelties as the north is from the southern pole. 
The sympathy of this assembly is adverse to slavery 
throughout. Thus our circitmstantialist has, no doubt very 
honestly, completely mistaken the meaning of the assembly's 
record ; and then, following out his own error, he has given 
the assembly a pro-slaverp character, which is wholly incom- 
patible with her conduct and testimony. It seems scarcely 
necessary to refer to the astonishingly strong and impres- 
sive language in the former part of the same report, viz : 
" "We consider the voluntary enslaving of one part of the 
human race by another, as utterly inconsistent with the 
law of God, as totally irreconcileable with the spirit and 
principles of the Gospel of Christ," etc., etc. 

The entire theory or doctrine of circumstances, as the con- 
trollers and justifiers of slavery, is utterly inadmissible in 
our view, and fraught with much mischief "Without at- 
tempting to discuss the subject fully here, we cannot but 
observe, that it is a very daring assumption to take the 
whole business of slaveholding from under the laws of God 
and the general principles of his moral government, and 
commit it to the contingent, unintelligible, indefinite, and 
entirely lawless direction and disposal of mere circum- 
stances, not capable of being distinctly defined or governed 
by rule. This system, so far as there is any appearance of 
form or order about it, erects every man into a little de- 
spot, and lifts him to a petty throne, where he may exer- 
cise his usurped dominion over freeborn immortal minds at 



41 



pleasure — defy, control, stereotype, and perpetuate slavery 
in any preferred form for ever. This train of thought is ful- 
ly sanctioned by the Princeton writer, where he says, " ]^o- 
thing can be more distinct than the right to hold slaves in 
certain circumstances and the right to render slavery perpetual.'" 
Such a declaration needs no comment. The reign of cir- 
cumstances, so much insisted on by both these writers, 
tends directly to perpetuate slavery ; because the circum- 
stances here imagined, and invested with such fearful power, 
however unstable and fugitive, will never cease to occur 
while human depravity, selfishness, and passion continue 
to operate and to exert the sway here assigned to them. 

In regard to the term " adiaphora," we had supposed 
christians long since to have discarded heathen distinctions 
and authorities in morals and religion. This is an item of 
Cicero's moral philosophy, and one of his most dangerous 
dogmas. It is there " derived and traced out in the ancient 
classics: '^Adiaphora, Greek; ab adiaphoros, indifferens, 
unde adiaphora, res medice natures ; quod per se, nee honestce, nec 
turpes, things indifferent, neither commanded nor forbidden, 
which, whilst such, a man is at liberty to do or not to do.''"^ 
The writer, by quoting this class, called adiaphora, with ap- 
probation, adopts it and makes it his own, and he is re- 
sponsible for it. This term was somewhat revived in mo- 
dern Europe, and applied to the Lutherans who adhered 
to Melancthon, memorable for his easy principles and vir- 
tues, and afterwards given to those who subscribed to the 
interim, which Charles V. published at the diet of Augs- 
burg. Melancthon had maintained that obedience was due to 
the imperial edicts in matters of an indifferent nature. f 

These references show us the origin and history of the 
term " adiaphora." Our learned author, who first produced 
this authority, deeply impressed, it seems, with veneration 
for the philosophers and orators, courts and cabinets, of 
past ages, appears to have given these dicta so high a place 
in his estimation that he perceives no incongruity or unfit- 



t Rees' Cyclopaedia, under adiaphorism. 
* Littleton's Latin Dictionary. 



42 



ness in transferring and applying their lax and arbitrary 
constructions of law and morals to the infinitely more ex- 
alted and infallible decrees and enactments of the King of 
Kings, thus creating a novel standard before which the 
letter and spirit of the Gospel must be entirely abashed ; 
and then this new heathen definition, in its original im- 
port, fabricated before the Gospel was born, is to be ad- 
mitted or set up to give character and sanction to our 
christian ethics and morality. This seems to be the present 
tendency of morals in the Presbyterian body, judging from 
the opinions of those who have recently commenced the 
introduction of these and other new notions on the subject 
of human slavery. 

"We cannot but hope that this opinion is not a fair index 
of theological purity on this point at Princeton ; neither do 
we believe that this classification of slavery, as stated, is in 
the slightest degree correct. The idea, that the infinitely 
wise, holy, and sovereign God should enact a law to con- 
trol the most essential interests of the universe, the intelli- 
gent moral action of his rational creatures, upon the ob- 
servance of which their order, purity, and happiness and 
his own glory must chiefly depend, and formally submit it 
to man, under a character of imperfection and contingency 
to be tested, annulled, or confirmed, obeyed or not, accord- 
to the choice, caprice, or fancy of the creatures to be go- 
verned by it, as a merely accidental, optional thing, a thing 
of circumstance or uncertainty ; the idea, we say, that God 
should introduce such a system is dishonoring to his cha- 
racter, as implying acknowledged incompetence or unfaith- 
fulness, and calculated, most obviously, to mar divine legis- 
lation on this point, or subvert it altogether, to lead his 
rational creatures into strong temptation, and inflict upon 
them very serious injury. 

But our admirer of this ancient and discarded opinion 
seems to be not fully satisfied with it himself, and hence, 
by a transition, which seems very easy and is not unfre- 
quent with him, he soon utters something not fully in ac- 
cordance with it — " We are no advocates of expediency in 
morals." And yet he nowhere disavows his devotion to 



43 



adiaphorism, which is a system of expedience, — he clings 
to it and advocates it to the end — thus enveloping himself 
in a mist, where, it being somewhat difficult to identify him 
at all, we leave him at present to find his way out at leisure. 

There seems to be something in the scholastic Latin phrase, 
7nahim in se, which has proved to many very deceptive. 
"Writers appear to attach to it a very deceptive meaning 
and exaggerated importance. They suppose that malum in 
se is something different from sin in general in origin, 
cause, or efifect — in tendency, degree, or result, in conse- 
quence of which fallacious suppositions, the import of this 
phrase is rendered dubious and dangerous. Sins which 
they suppose to be of very minor turpitude in certain cases, 
being exceedingly conducive to human convenience, comfort, 
and interest, seem to them to be entirely excluded from the 
divine category of crime or scale of guilt, while other sins 
of the same general nature are inflated into something 
monstrous, and described as mala in se. 

But is sin divided, or capable of subdivision in its own 
nature ? The Eoman apostacy, to answer the purpose we 
suppose here intended, and to suit their owm depraved sys- 
tem of morals, manufactured a division of sin into venial 
and mortal. Are the theologians, philosophers, and moral- 
ists of modern days seriously disposed to resuscitate these 
old pagan, Jesuitical, and atheistical sophisms of by-gone 
days ? Can sin or guilt be so decomposed or disintegrated 
that one integral element shall be a malum maximum, an- 
other a malum minus, another a malum minimum, and an- 
other a carte blanche ? Has God in truth introduced into 
his mandatory or prohibitory schedule any items so muta- 
ble and fluctuating or equivocal, that before they can take 
effect, or be reduced to specific definite form, their crudity 
and indefiniteness must be removed by passing through 
the crucil)le of human caprice ? In graduating the crime 
of slavehokling on the scale of guilt, has the great Law- 
giver made a hair-splitting business of it to accommodate 
its devotees, by subdividing it and rating its demerits by 
halves and quarters, by vulgar and decimal fractions ? or 
placed it on a descending sliding scale, at the foot of which 



44 



is found a cypher, an innocent harmless thing, not a malum 
in se, not a malum at all ? If the place of this cypher is 
established as a deposit for mongrel, minimum, or guiltless sins, 
men being constituted their judges, at least nine-tenths of the 
iniquities of this world will be marked and forwarded to 
that depot, it seems so much easier to get clear of sin and 
guilt through that fictitious loophole of escape than at the 
bar of God. 

The first sin of man nobody will deny was a malum in 
se, a sin of superlative magnitude, and yet it consisted only 
of Adam's eating the forbidden fruit. " But of the fruit 
of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath 
said, ye shall not eat." But Adam took the fruit, and " did 
eat." A very simple act — but it was an act of disobedience 
to God's command. Sin has never changed its nature, it is 
still a simple violation of God's expressed or manifested will; 
it may vary somewhat in form in the number of its acts, in 
the heinousness of its nature, but its essence must remain 
unchanged for ever. The only point at issue between God 
and man in our state of probation is simply this — authority 
on his part, on ours submission. It is God's right in all 
cases to command, and man's duty in all cases to obey. God's 
authority is sovereign, universal, absolute, over all his ra- 
tional offspring. It allows no exemption, recognises no 
privileged persons, orders, ages, or circumstances. 

The necessary, contingent, circumstantial, and we might 
add, convenient and profitable sins, here in question, it is 
admitted are sins, but it is alleged of such a character that 
they are sins sui generis, not sins in se, or in themselves, and 
so not guilty at all. If any supposed sins are not sins in 
their own nature, in themselves, in se, how are they, or can 
they be, or be shown to be, sins at all f If sins at all, and 
yet not sins in se in their own nature, their sin and guilt 
must be outside of their essence, reality, or existence, must 
have been transferred and imputed or attached to some 
external contingent circumstances in the untelligible man- 
ner or relation of effect and cause — the cause being con- 
cealed and inexplicable. Such a connection must be shown 
to exist between the internal sinful essence or vitality and 



45 



these external circumstances or contingencies as to produce 
in the essence and action of sin a vibratory movement be- 
tween the internal and external element of evil, like the 
polar motion of the negative and positive electricity ; and 
before the nature and quality of any sin can be decided to 
be contingent and neutral, it must be determined whether 
the malum of sin is in itself or out of itself in se aut extra se, 
quite a difficult work, for who has optics sharp enough to 
perform the task ? 

Sin consists of an act of transgression or nonconformity 
to law. And before any sin can be shown to have no moral 
quality, no guilt, or before any acknowledged violation of 
the divine law can be proved to be a contingency, some- 
times good and sometimes bad, sometimes guilty and some- 
times innocent, it must be shown that God's command is 
sometimes 7iot a command, or that disobedience is sometimes 
not disobedience, either or each of which is an inconceivable 
thing and absurd in se. Disobedience to the divine law is 
always evil in its own nature, and can put on no other cha- 
racter, in any circumstances, than that of criminal resist- 
ance, rebellion against God, wherever it exists, in every 
phase, and in all possible degrees of it. Slavery, or taking 
away the liberty of man, or holding him in bondage, is 
in substance manstealing, a sin against God ; it violates the 
order he gave to nature , it breaks his law ; it is an evil, 
therefore, in its own nature, in se, and so must continue to 
be in every instance in which it is exhibited among God's 
intelligent creatures for ever, until God's nature and his 
law are changed or the nature of sin is changed. 

Besides, if one degree of sin, even infinitessimally small, 
can be remedied and expelled from God's kingdom in any 
individual case, by any possible means, by state manage- 
ment, by oversight or incapacity in the judge, by sympathy 
for the transgressor, by granting him peculiar privileges on 
his offering excuses or promising reformation ; if one de- 
gree of guilt, the least conceivable, can be expelled from 
the system in this manner, then another, and another, and 
a greater can, ad infinitum; and so the guilt of the whole 
world might have been neutralized and expelled without 

E 



4© 

the influence of the blood of Christ. A guiltless sin of any 
conceivable phase or degree is a nonentity, an absurdity ; 
hence every violation of the divine Imo, icill, or icord is a 
malum in se. 

The writer, having very gravely remarked, that he " re- 
cognises in this matter no authoritative rule of truth and 
duty but the word of God," we may safely infer that, not- 
withstanding his adiajphorism^ his circumstances and contin- 
gencies, he considers the institution of slaveiy as included 
nnder the divine law, and by its constitution and existence, 
moral or immoral, as approved or conformed to that law. 
It must, then, be for ever judged and tested by that rule, 
till it can be shown that God has either entirely abrogated 
his law, or suspended the operation of its obligations and 
sanctions in regard to slavery ; and its guilt must be gradu- 
ated according to the same standard. The idea, that a law 
of God should be so formed and ordained in his kingdom 
that its essential features and its obligations should be 
fluctuating, like many human devices, subject to all the 
vicissitudes of human passion and caprice, is so manifestly 
absurd, if not impious, that the mere statement of the sup- 
position refutes it. Applying indiflerence, expedience, cir- 
cumstance, contingence, or adiaphorism, in any conceivable 
form, to a divine enactment, published to the world with 
a thus saith the Lord, unsettles the whole system of divine 
legislation in human view, and suspends or devolves the 
whole fabric of the divine administration upon the will 
of man ; it reduces or lowers the stability and flj^iedness of 
the heavenly mind to a level or subordination to the igno- 
rant, wavering, fitful vacillations of fallible men ; it makes 
the laws and enactments of the infinite Lawgiver of heaven 
dependent upon the selfish passions, caprices, and dictates 
of blind erring mortals. Maintaining this opinion, there- 
fore, is a practical denial of the wisdom, justice, benevo- 
lence, and entire competence of the one only Eternal Legis- 
lator wisely and adequately to direct the conduct of his in- 
telligent moral offispring ; it represents the Gospel of Christ, 
at least so far as slavery is involved, like a legal code, made 
in some dark corner of the universe and sent down to 



m 

earth, to have its nature and its merits investigated, its 
character ascertained, and its acceptance or rejection de- 
cided, by a popular vote, among the slave owners, slave 
traffickers, and slave advocates of this apostate and de- 
praved world. 

It is evident that the doctrine of adiaphorism, or leaving 
the character and morality of slaveholding to be decided by 
circumstances, of course at the discretion of individuals 
or communities, whether it relates to particular instances 
or to its general character, must produce endless confusion 
and conflict in human councils, interests, and actions. This 
diversity of opinion and collision of interests, to be pro- 
duced necessarily by human caprice and passion, will 
spread from province to province, from kingdom to king- 
dom, and from generation to generation, generating and 
multiplying in their progress every conceivable enormity in 
the work of slavery, and perpetuating this iniquity without 
end. 

Such a construction of our moral code, and application 
of it to human things, will certainly, in mortal view, re- 
move guilt and odium from crime in great measure, and 
in proportion invite and encourage participation and pro- 
gress in the several departments of iniquity connected 
especially with slaveholding and kindred vices. Uncer- 
tainty itself, as to the true character and object of the law, 
is sufficient to produce this result. Under such a lax con- 
struction and equivocal administration, the law itself, 
amidst the conflicts of human opinion and unceasing agita- 
tion which will certainly follow, must be neutralized and 
sink into contempt, its power being weakened, its dignity 
lowered, and its moral energy frittered away by the indefi- 
niteness and obscurity resting upon it. 

Henceforth, under such a system of popular disunion, 
there can be no concert in action or device for the extinc- 
tion of slavery, for the well-being of society in this relation, 
or stability of government. It is the very relaxation in 
morals which the slaveholding iniquity demands to per- 
petuate and aggravate its power and influence, to expand 
the field of its operation, and to render its continuance and 



48 



numerous mischiefs interminable, by making it extensively 
popular, and by removing the most effectual guards and 
securities for preventing its increase and aggravation. 

This plea of necessity, convenience, contingence, and cir- 
cumstances in general, as an excuse for slaveholding, is an 
old and strong-scented heresy, which harassed and alarmed 
the Church at an early day. Hence, in the solemn admo- 
nition of the Assembly of 1818, we find the following im- 
pressive caution to the churches on this difiiculty, now re- 
vived and urged in a manner so dangerous. " We there- 
fore warn all who belong to our denomination of christians 
against unduly extending this plea of necessity, (circumstance, 
convenience, contingence, all understood and included) 
against making it a cover for the love and practice of slavery, or 
a pretence for not using efforts that are lawful and practica- 
ble to extinguish the evil." ^Notwithstanding this pointed 
and cogent injunction, it is deplorable that some of our 
respectable ministers, hitherto supposed men of superior 
discretion, should now unblushingly appear' to outrage the 
authority of the church and jeopardize her harmony and 
prosperity, by attempting to circulate through the land this 
proscribed, heresy. 

If such a view of this subject should become extensive, 
and the efforts now in process to propagate the theory, that 
slavery may be justified by indefinite circumstances, should 
become popular and prevalent, it is too plain to be doubted 
that, under such a relaxed system, every man may plead 
his own particular feelings and views, his necessities and 
conveniences, his indolence and luxury, his peculiar circum- 
stances and difficulties, fictitious or real, varied and multi- 
plied indefinitely, as an excuse for this crime against God 
and man, and he may continue this absurd and wicked 
process till time shall end. But it must be remembered 
that these circumstances and alleged difficulties, which it is 
proposed to admit as apologies for slavery and excuses for 
its continuance, are accessories and consequences of the 
crime itself. And it is a settled principle in morals and in 
law, that one crime cannot be set up to vindicate and excuse 
another. This is especially true if the latter be the legiti- 



49 



mate adjunct of the former. Therefore these circumstances, 
which are considered so important and imperious as miti- 
gations of slavery, ought rather to be regarded as aggrava- 
tions of its guilt and enormity. The only remedy this cor- 
rupt and flagitious system admits of is the restoration of 
freedom, as soon as it can be accomplished in a manner 
consistent with the benefit and happiness of all parties con- 
cerned in it 



€HAPTEE VII. 

The Princeton writer's attempt to separate between the nature of slavery and 
its vices — his abstraction artful, but not availing— cause and effect indissoluble 
—his views narrow — ^slavery nationally withering. — Toleration of evil a stand- 
ing feature of God's government — -the parable of tares supports our argument. 

Another grand mistake of the Princeton essayist lies in 
a different way, as we have said, in a fallacious attempt to 
disjoin what God and nature have united, that is slavehold- 
ing and its natural consequences; to separate between 
muse and effect; to conceal from popular view the real root 
and practical external evidence of the evils attending the 
system ; in trying to turn the eyes of the people from the 
poisoned fountain which sends forth the bitter and malig- 
nant streams of slaveholding infection, morbidity and 
death, over all s-lave fields, to some object adapted to his 
deluded imagination and perverted judgment. If there is 
mistake or delusion anywhere, it is to be found strongly , 
marked in that attempt. The effects of slavery follow the 
cause with a surprising promptness and universality. It 
strikes fatally at all enterprise and improvement among 
men, as with lightning, you can scarcely distinguish be- 
ttween the flash and the stroke. 

But the writer before us seems to be blind and insensible 
to the shocking grievance inflicted by slavery. He assumes 
to himself perfect knowledge of these matters, and tells 

E* 



50 



anti-slavery men, that they have no well-defined conception 
of its nature ; that they have a confused idea of ignorance 
and vice, degradation and misery," and denounces this 
complex conception of slavery as the aggregate of all 
moral and physical evil ;" that take these external exhibi- 
tions away, and very " little will remain." It is not denied 
that some opposers of slavery, from the vividness of their 
perceptions and the strength of their convictions on the 
subject, may have employed language akin to this, quite as 
freely as was needful or useful. But it is very difficult for 
any honest, sensible, and benevolent man to speak too 
strongly upon a subject so full of disgust, desolation, and 
horror. 

The writer's views appear to be narrow, contracted, and 
illiberal on this subject ; he shows nothing large, expanded, 
public spirited, and philanthropic in regard to it. Blind- 
ness has happened to him for a time; coolness and torpor 
seem to have seized upon his moral and mental sensibili- 
ties. He talks of lohijps and chains^ of ignoroMce and de- 
gradation, of privations and discomforts, as if these were 
the chief or only evils of slavei^. They are, indeed, dread- 
ful fruits of it, wherever found. If not universal, they are 
very uniformly accompaniments of the system ; and the 
plea of slaveholders is, that they cannot sustain authority 
without this rigid discipline. But these are small items 
compared with the many more momentous results neces- 
sarily and profusely springing from the system. The whole 
world is afflicted by it and groans under it, even when and 
where seen at a distance. The appalling idea, that a large 
portion of the human race are laid in irredeemable ruinS' 
for time and for eternity; hundreds of millions already 
irrecoverably gone for ever; at least four millions of the 
population of these United States, one-sixth part of the 
whole number, now groaning under heavy exactions in 
thick darkness, constantly dwelt upon with pain and 
lamentation by anti-slavery men and an incensed public^ 
are un thought of by our slavery advocate, so far as we can 
see. The paralyzed, impoverished, prostrate, and ruined 
condition of all slave continents and islands, people and 



51 



latitudes, lie either does not see or does not regard. Tliis^ 
he says, is very little=-~all nothing. He tries to look upon 
slavery as a mere sjjeck, a little thing floating on the sea of 
life, a buoy to caution sailors against trifling ills, rather 
than as an inlet to three-fourths of the calamities and 
woes which afflict mankind. The traveller, in passing 
from a free to a slave country, finds all things faded and 
eclipsed; every object presents itself under a corrupted 
and deteriorated aspect; the soil, the improvements, the 
business, the inhabitants, the moral features, the religious 
indications, if there are any, the political exhibitions, are 
all distorted, dilapidated, withered, and blasted. These 
fruits appear intimately and indissolubly connected with 
slavery, as the effect is with its legitimate cause, and they can- 
not be disjoined. You can find no fruits like these in any 
free open field among any free and intelligent population 
in the world. 

It is the simple and single enormity of enslaving men, 
holding them in oppressive bondage, depriving them of 
freedom, independence, self-control, paralyzing their inter- 
nal energy and various capacities for useful enterprise and 
action, as individuals, as citizens and as nations, that gene- 
rates all these deplorable fruits. This it is that we deplore 
and war against in all its certain consequential evils. Take 
away the cause ; restore freedom to the captives, and their 
humanity awakes ; their elasticity will spring into life ; the 
wilderness, the dark, sad, and solitary place will soon put 
on a renovated cheerful form. Necessity will cease for de- 
picting or excusing the miseries of slavery when it is abol- 
ished, and never till then. We do not now desire, we do 
not ask for, we do not ex'pect immediate emancipation. Under 
existing circumstances, we would not accept it for a price 
or as a bounty, the emancipated to remain where they now 
are. What we desire and labor for is, that the people may 
understand the nature of freedom and of slavery as the two 
great antagonistic principles or systems which are now 
in direct and violent collision, each contending for the 
mastery. If the people can be brought to perceive and 
deeply to realize the real nature, magnitude, and enormity 



of slavery, this surpassing scourge of humanity and sin 
against God, the first important step towards true and last« 
ing liberty will have been secured. A peaceful, honorable, 
voluntary, and happy deliverance from this greatest of all 
curses which our country has ever experienced may be 
rationally and confidently anticipated. The work of pre- 
paring enslaved millions for freedom, when once intelli* 
gently, honestly, and earnestly undertaken, will progress 
with mighty speed, and soon be accomplished. 

But the chief reliance of the advocates of slavei'y ap- 
pears to be upon the alleged argumentiim ex sileiiiio, the un* 
reproving acquiescence of Christ and his apostles in the 
cruel and rapacious system of slavery in practice among the 
Romans. The argument, when somewhat expanded is, that 
the mere existence of slavery in various periods and con- 
ditions of the ancient or primitive church, and especially 
under the eye and observation of its great founder and first 
propagators, without meeting their immediate and positive 
condemnation, proves the harmless and guiltless character 
of the institution. If, say they, coming at once down to Gos- 
pel times, the Saviour and his apostles, in full view of the 
iDorstform of slavery, did not immediately denounce it, and 
let loose the thunders of Omnipotence against it, they 
could not have considered it so heinous an evil as it is re- 
presented to be, or even sinful and criminal at all in the 
sight of God; for in reality, rather than showing symp- 
tons of hostility to slavery, their conduct towards it proves 
their sympathy for it. — This is one view of the subject 
given in the Repertory. 

If this inference from the toleration of the divine govern- 
ment towards slavery be just, then the same inference from 
the divine conduct towards all other forms and grades of 
moral evil must be just and valid. Hence this argument, 
thus applied, as we shall see, will prove infinitely too much, 
and so prove an entire abortion. The inference, when car- 
ried out, stands thus : all acts of moral agents committed 
under the supervision of Almighty God, and in violation of 
Ins authority and law, not immediately denounced and 
punished or proceeded against with the utmost rigor of law, 



53 



are ipso facto innocent in themselves, and the fact of their 
being neither prevented nor condemned under such cir- 
cumstances, even proves the tacit approbation and sympa- 
thy of the divine being for the act of transgression or sys- 
tem of evil. It will be a sufficient reply to this argument 
to test it by a historical fact, from the New Testament, fa- 
miliar to all. The inspired record assures us that the cruci- 
fixion of the Lord Jesus Christ was committed not only 
under the perfect recognition of the infinitely wise and 
holy God, but by his appointment, and notwithstanding 
that act has ever since been heralded through the world as 
the most flagitious and criminal deed ever perpetrated upon 
earth ; it is charged as pre-eminently wicked by the apostle 
Paul, upon the murderous company who performed the act 
— " Him being delivered^ by the determinate counsel and fore- 
knowledge of God, have ye taken, and by wicked hands have 
crucified and slain.'' Thus, although this murderous act was 
perpetrated by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of 
God, when it might have been instantly prevented, as it 
w^as an individual act in a limited sphere, by a slight inter- 
position of Almighty God, yet it was permitted under the 
perfect view of God, and the agents in this bloody tragedy 
are held in the estimation of heaven and earth to be pre- 
eminently and enormously guilty and fully accountable for 
the deed. Judas, the man who led the way in this enormous 
act of perfidy and violence, has in all succeeding ages been 
held up to view as an unparalleled monster in iniquity and 
guilt, and yet the deed was perpetrated " by the determi- 
nate counsel and foreknowledge of God." ''Him have ye 
taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." 

Hence the argument drawn from the silence of Christ 
and his apostles in regard to the crime of slavery, if they 
had given no indication of hostility to it, proves nothing 
but the permissive agency of God in regard to it, for pur- 
poses satisfactory to himself, although the object may not 
be fully known to men. 

By surveying the character of God and his governmental 
administration over this apostate world, it becomes evident 
that mercy maintains a predominating influence on his 



54 



throne, producing in Hs providence decisive demonstrations 
of toleration and forbearance towards his degenerate crea- 
tures and their refi^actory and sinful actions, proving con- 
stantly that he is waiting to he gracious^ sloio to anger, ready 
to forgive, able to save to the uttermost, and that judgment is his 
strange work. God is acting in perfect consistence with his 
divine perfections and the tolerant features of his govern- 
ment, when, in the midst of his merciful delays, he says 
to bold and hardened transgressors, " Ye are condemned 
already, and the wrath of God abideth on you;" when he 
patiently and kindly waited long on the sinners to whom 
the Apostle refers in the striking and memorable passage 
in the Acts, ^'the times of this wickedness God ivinked at, 
but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. In- 
stances of rigor and prompt punishment may be viewed as 
exceptions to the general rule of lenity, and justifiable on 
the ground that God is a sovereign, and does his will in the 
armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. 
Or if it is preferred, let the instances of lenity and long- 
suffering be the exceptions to the divine rule of rigid jus- 
tice and prompt execution. In either case, lenity consti- 
tutes a strong and perpetual feature in the divine govern- 
ment. The principles of the Divine being, the arrange- 
ments of his kingdom, and the prescriptions of his law, 
are made and applied subject to the same rule in regard to 
the acts and transgressions of individuals and combined 
associations of apostates and rebels. Such are the princi- 
ples and features of God's universal empire, that the period 
of time intervening between the entrance of sin into the 
world and the day of judgment is an interim of suspended 
execution, the reign of toleration, long-suffering, and mercy. 
Surely, then, no intelligent judicious man, well instructed 
in the knowledge of God's kingdom, would pervert and 
transform his adorable lenity and indulgence towards guilty 
offenders into evidences of secret, silent, internal sympathy 
and approbation of those whom, while he tolerates them for 
purposes wise and satisfactory to himself, he is marshalling 
all the resources of insulted and incensed majesty completely 
and for ever to destroy at the set time. 



55 



A just and accurate acquaintance with the original and 
elementary princi]3les of law furnishes a complete answer 
to the inference in favor of slavery, drawn from the Apos- 
tle's silence in regard to it. Suspense or delay in execution, 
where the offence is clear and the law positive, even in the 
divine government, is not only allowable but necessary in 
many cases, as part of a fixed arrangement and constituting 
an established feature. The writer tells us " that unmixed 
good or evil in such a world as ours is a very rare thing." 
Very true — and law is intended chiefly to prevent evil. 
But the law consists of two integral parts or separate ele- 
ments. First, the mere technical rule or letter of law : and 
secondly, the reason upon which the law is founded. These 
two constituents, in their own nature, and very frequently 
in practical operation, are found in direct conflict with 
each other. Upon this fact is the legal maxim founded, 
'■^ sumrmm jus, summa injuria.'' On account of this funda- 
mental feature of law, human tribunals have been some- 
times divided into what are called courts of law and courts 
of equity, each recognising a distinct sphere or order of 
facts and doings as the basis of administration. The word 
of God, the highest and most authoritative rule of duty 
and law of equity, evidently contemplates and authorizes 
this distinction. 

The parable of the tares will illustrate our meaning: 
^' The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man who 
sowed good seed in his field ; but while men slept, his ene- 
mies came, and sowed tares among the wheat. But when 
the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit, then ap- 
peared the tares also. So the servants of the householder 
came, and said unto him, sir, didst not thou sow good seed 
in thy field ; from whence, then, hath it tares ? And he said 
unto them, an enemy hath done this. The servants said 
unto him, wilt thou that we go and gather them up ? But 
he said nay ; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up 
also the ivheat with them ; let both grow together until the 
hnrvest. And in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, 
gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles 
to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn." Matt. 
III. 24—30. 



56 



This parable is intended to illustrate and justify the per- 
fections of God in permitting the corrupt institutions of 
this world to prosper and the crimes of men to go unpun- 
ished for the present, or what is equivalent, suffering his 
law to lie inoperative. The writer before us puts his judg- 
ment in direct opposition to that of divine wisdom, and 
declares that execution must immediately follow the in- 
dictment. A brief consideration of the subject will show 
the modesty and correctness of this opinion. He holds that 
" slavery or slaveholding is not necessarily sinful ;" and his 
argument in regard to it is, " If slavery is under all circum- 
stances sinful, it must therefore, under all circumstances 
and at all hazards, be immediately abandoned." "This rea- 
soning," he says, "is perfectly conclusive.'' That reasoning 
we pronounce perfectly erroneous ; and we shall cite God's 
auiJiority, exhibited in the preceding parable, as well as com- 
mon sense and just intelligence, to prove it. He says, "it 
requires no argument to show that sin ought to be at once 
abandoned." We admit that it is the duty of all men to do 
right ; but we maintain that God never intended to stop the 
existence and prevalence of sin at the very instant of its 
appearance upon earth. If so, there would have been no 
room, no occasion, for law : the present could not have been 
a state of probation ; freedom of choice must have yielded 
to superior force ; and the wills of men being violently con- 
trolled, it would have been unnecessary to make laws to 
prevent men from doing what their condition, or the sys- 
tem they lived under, would not permit or enable them to 
do. From this view of the case, it results that the present 
is for mortals, for society and government, a state of trial, 
that all moral agents may have time to develop their prin- 
ciples and characters. Besides, in regard to many of the 
individuals, the institutions and companies here involved, 
there might be means and prospects of reform and amend- 
ment, and this is a sufficient reason for delay of execution ; 
so that, on all these accounts, an immediate infliction of 
punishment on offence or default, as soon as it occurs, 
would evidently conflict with the plans of infinite wisdom 
and with both equity and mercy. 



57 



Instead, therefore, of extinguishing all sin and iniquity 
as soon as it appeared upon earth, or establishing such a 
system as would entirely prevent its introduction, God con- 
stituted this as a world of probation, the dwelling-place of 
a vast multitude of degenerate guilty human creatures: he 
provided rules and authorized an administration adapted 
to such a state, the main feature of which is toleration of 
evils as long as they can be consistently endured, especially 
where wide spreading defection and iniquity cannot be ar- 
rested and exterminated, without involving in the general 
catastrophe many innocent parties and valuable interests. 
Hence our Saviour and his apostles, acting in the name 
and clothed with the authority of the great God, in intro- 
ducing the Gospel upon earth, refused to assail the violent 
and cruel institution of slavery in the Koman empire with 
war, internal commotion, and universal revolution and de- 
solation. 

To show the applicability and force of the parable in 
support of the course pursued by the Lord and his apostles 
in relation to Roman slavery, consider for a moment what 
would have been the consequence of a direct and immedi- 
ate assault upon that strongly fortified and evil institution. 
Dr. Wayland's language is strong and appropriate on this 
point: "If the Gospel had proclaimed the unlawfulness of 
slavery, and taught slaves to resist the oppression of their 
masters, it would instantly have arrayed the two parties in 
deadly hostility throughout the civilized world; its an- 
nouncement would have been the signal of a servile war, 
and the very name of the christian religion would have 
been forgotten amidst the agitations of universal bloodshed." 
Here are reasons lying at the foundation of this abomina- 
ble and desolating system of slavery in its universal con- 
nection with human society and government, their safety, 
prosperity, and happiness, sufficient to prove that this was 
not the time, nor were these the circumstances, to sanction 
any attempt at total eradication of the evil. The greatness 
of the evil of slavery, which the Princetonian would urge 
as the irresistible call for immediate process of wrath and 
extermination against it, the truly enlightened friends of 

F 



m 



humanity and seiTants of God, with entire conformity to 
the divine system, in this crisis consider the decisive reason 
for delay, providing at the same time through the Gospel, as 
was done, well adapted and adequate means, in due time, 
to accomplish the same desirable purpose in a manner 
most perfectly compatible with God's wisdom, justice, and 
mercy. 

Hence it seems reasonable for Christ to say to his apos- 
tles, instead of digging up the tares, and with them de- 
stroying the young and tender wheat blades, let both stand 
and grow together. There will be time enough, a more 
suitable season, yea a set time, to get clear of this abomi- 
nation and to purge the land : go preach the Gospel, sow 
the good seed of the word, in due time a crop will spring 
up to choke the tares and cover the whole field with choicest 
wheat. 



CHAPTEK YIII. 

The conduct of Christ and his apostles more fully explained — their policy viudi- 

cated. 

When the ambitious princes and warriors of the earth, 
grown tired of conflict and tumult, had proclaimed " peace" 
to the nations, how would it have appeared in the eyes of 
mankind to see the promised Messiah, "Prince of peace," 
commencing a daring revolt against the Koman empire, 
and rousing their corrupt multitudes again to arms and 
battles ? God, in accomplishing his gracious purposes, does 
not restrict himself as to time, means, or method. He does 
not always work by artistic fitful propellers, or move on 
telegraphic wires, to execute his own will, or suit the ca- 
prices of men, or proceed to destroy immediately, by al- 
mighty power, obstacles which do not instantly yield to 
moral force. In the fulfilment of his vast designs, he very 



59 



often adopts a slow and gradual process, which is perfectly 
consistent with certainty in its results. Thus he gained pos- 
session of the promised land "by little and little," when 
he could have accomplished it in an hour. He often sends 
forth his truth, the engine of his power, in an insinuating 
manner like leaven to leaven the whole lump. Hence it was 
observed, in the infancy of Christianity, "his kingdom 
cometh not with observation." Christ moved not in style 
and state with armies and banners, though "heir of all 
things," but most carefully avoided the pomp and splendor 
of this world. His movements were wisely adapted to cir- 
cumstances, and rarely conformed to human policy. 

When Solon, the great Athenian lawgiver, was asked 
vjhat kind of Icaos he had given the people, he replied " that 
he had given them the best laws they were capable of 
receiving."* This principle characterized the divine go- 
vernment in the days of Christ's incarnation, and does so 
still. In like manner, when certain Pharisees, stumbled by 
the supposed laxness of the Mosaic law of divorce, came 
to our Lord with perplexing questions on that subject, al- 
leging that Moses sulFered to write a bill of divorce and 
to put her away, Jesus ansivered and said unto them, for the 
hardness of your heart he ivrote you this precept. So our Sa- 
viour did not see fit to assail the Roman system of slavery 
immediately, or to attempt its sudden overthrow ; but he 
commenced a train of measures in opposition to this cor- 
rupt and wicked system by appropriate moral means, which 
he knew would in due time exterminate the evil altogether. 

However widely slavery may have prevailed through the 
Roman empire, and however odious its features and deso- 
lating its power, the advent was a period of general peace, 
in token of which the temple of Janus was shut. The 
writer in the Repertory asserts, that at that time slavery, 
in its worst forms, prevailed over the whole world. That its 
ravages were very extensive and appalling, we do not ques- 
tion ; but to make out the character ascribed to its " worst 
forms" the crowning grace and sanction of Christianity 



* Eollin's Ancient History. 



60 



were needed to finish the picture, and this exhibition was 
reserved for the nineteenth century in these United States. 

The apostles were better instructed in all the details of 
this subject, and acquainted with the genius, temper, am- 
bition, and power of the Romans, than any of our modern 
wise men can claim to be. In addition to the plenitude of 
their divine endowment and inauguration for their special 
work, their hearts teemed with the science of morals, phi- 
losophy, government, and policy, and in official duty they 
were left to pursue the dictates of earthly, sanctified by 
heavenly wisdom. They felt themselves to be a small, ob- 
scure, and feeble company of devoted followers of the cru- 
cified and despised l^Tazarene. Their whole number, at that 
time, is stated at one hundred and twenty. They were just 
beginning to develop the most stupendous scheme, or 
moral revolution, ever conceived in heaven, much less at- 
tempted on earth. They might well tremble under their 
responsibility, and exclaim as Paul, on another occasion, 
"Who is sufiicient for these things?" They clearly saw 
that slavery, if attacked, would array against them the au- 
gust majesty of Eome, enthroned in splendor and magnifi- 
cence, girded with power, jealous of their rights, tenacious 
of their laws, devoted to their forms, oppressions, and 
cruelties ; indignant, barbarous, and exterminating towards 
any who should dare to utter a whisper against the de- 
praved and repulsive features of their arbitrary and bloody 
code. How perfectly futile, how mad would it have been 
for the apostles to interfere with Koman law and usage, ex- 
cept where it was absolutely necessary to their progress and 
where no other means would avail. They knew that no 
conceivable advantage could accrue from such an attempt : 
that disturbing the prevailing ^ystem would produce uni- 
versal agitation, as the Repertory well expresses it, and bring 
upon their defenceless heads the unmitigated vengeance of 
the Roman empire, with a view to abolish this new sect, 
and leave nothing to he called christian at Aniioch. 

The time had not yet come for Omnipotence, by direct 
and immediate action, to dethrone and to crown monarchs 
by a word. And the apostles had not come, as Mohammed, 



61 



to enforce their new system at the point of the bayonet. 
They were required to use weapons which were spiritual, 
not carnal. Tsmth, the word and the spirit, were their 
mightiest instaments to pmli down the strongholds of in- 
iquity. Fatiemt waiting and calm endurance of evil prac- 
tices and opposing systems of depravity constituted their 
most wise and successful policy; and it cannot be doubted 
that the same Paul, whose learning and eloquence, ardor 
and devotion in the cause of Christianity, had first appre- 
ciated the fitness and value of expedience^ now recom- 
mended and adopted it, as a wise and efficient plan of ac- 
tion. ''All things," said he, "are lawful forme, but all 
things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but 
all things edify not, that is, they will not build up the Church 
nor propagate the Gospel." Slavery is a monstrous evil, a 
malum in se; but even to destroy it, it is not expedient for 
^ few pigmies to attack myriads of giants, the masters of 
the world. To this principle of 'expedience the Apostle after- 
wards refers, and it very much controlled his eventful life. 
Through ali its vicissitudes never an instance occurred call- 
ing more imperatively for its exercise, than when he was 
ireqjjired to reconcile difficulties in the infant Church of Je- 
sus Christ involving the character and influence of slavery, 
which seemed to be opposed to the Gospel which they 
preached, while it was strongly estabiished through the 
Eoman empire. Kather than jeopardize their few and feeble 
^churches, and sacrifice their own lives by a dsurimg and pro- 
voking assault upon its vices and cruelties, however glar- 
ingly apparent, -they adopted a prudent conciliatory policy, 
for the present waiving the agitating subject of slave domi- 
nation, as belonging to the civil and political polity of the 
'Country, rather than to religious and ecclesiastical authority 
and rule, which were very imperfectly introduced and 
^scarcely recognised in that empire, before they had an op- 
portunity to prove its divine character and authority. 

In adopting this course, they uttered no opinion on the 
main question: they compromised no principle; they as- 
isumed an entire neutrality of position in Roman eye. On 
the other hand, thej .gave no sanction to the prevalent 



Eoman corruption ; they left the point undecided, which is 
still in controversy, whether slavery is a creature of natural 
justice or of violent assumption and arrogance. Until we 
can ascertain on just evidence that the course they adopted 
was in conflict with their inspired instructions, we are not 
authorized to sit in judgment on their conduct; and they 
who attempt this without a divine warrant, and arbitrarily 
denounce their course, are chargeable with slandering the 
great Teacher sent from God, with casting a heavy unau- 
thorized imputation upon his apostles, and with an attempt 
to villify his blessed Gospel. The Saviour and his apostles 
were not sent, "as politicians,"'^ to remedy the corruptions 
of civil government, nor to correct the abuses of political 
power among the Eomans, nor suddenly to purify their so- 
cial system from its corrupt institutions and habits. Their 
mission, so far as on record, was definitely fixed : they were 
appointed to put in efficient and successful motion, on its 
own internal powers and springs, the truth, the word and 
the spirit of their master, a moral machinery to run through 
the whole world, to renew the hearts of men and to re- 
model their lives and actions, progressively uniting the 
Vv^hole mass of mankind in one homogeneous family ; holy 
on earth, to be glorious in heaven. 

The apostles, seeing the institution of slavery extensively 
prevalent and popular among the Eomans, indeed inti- 
mately incorporated with their whole civil and social or- 
ganization, felt that they had nothing favorable to their 
mission to anticipate, and everything hostile to fear from 
the desperate adventure of attacking, few and feeble as 
they were, the powerfully fortified institution of slavery. 
Knowing that even slight exasperation would excite Ro- 
man power and inveteracy against them, their calm and 
conciliatory course must be considered profoundly discreet. 
Their course of action, as the record of it shows, was 
marked with features of wisdom, which, for their origin, 
point to Heaven. 



*See Repertory. 



63 



CHAPTEE IX. 

The apostles' conduct towards slavery was right— the best practicable consist- 
ent with their character, the public peace, prosperity of the Church— a noble 
example — imitation of God's patient policy. 

When the subject of slaA^ery came up for consideration 
in the first christian churches, the question naturally pre- 
sented to the apostles was simply this, will it be better for 
us now, more consistent with our mission, more conducive 
to the enlargement of the Church and propagation of Chris- 
tianity, to meet slavery directly, in the most disadvantageous 
circumstances conceivable, in all its force, on the broad 
ground of positive prohibition and immediate extermina- 
tion, or to treat this corrupt and debasing ordinance and 
usage just as we treat other criminal and polluting practices 
injurious to true religion, to pure morals, to the interests of 
society, to the progress of the Gospel, and to the welfare of 
the human race, and to rely upon the precepts, the princi- 
ples, and internal energy of the Gospel, which are adapted 
and adequate to the entire suppression and eradication of 
this gigantic evil, when time shall have been afforded for 
them to act upon this seducing and corrupting practice ? The 
apostles saw at a glance the tremendous consequences of as- 
suming a position decidedly hostile to this fashionable, lucra- 
tive, ancient, and wide spreading custom prevalent through 
the Roman empire. Their christian company, consisting of 
about one hundred and twenty souls, how could they pos- 
sibly offer any effectual resistance to the whole Koman 
power combined against them? Could they even hope to 
fortify themselves, and obtain deliverance by attempting 
to bring down the miraculous power of Omnipotence to 
fight for them ? Under every view they could take of their 
case, they could not fail to perceive that the infant Church 
of Jesus Christ must be victimized by their irritating and 
contending with the Roman power; that if the Gospel 
were not entirely suppressed, its progress would be sus- 
pended to some distant and contingent day. They saw, at 



64 



the same time, tliat they would inevitably have a conflict 
with the Roman power on another ground, and that was 
enough. 

How much wiser and better, they would naturally con- 
clude, more consistent with God's peaceful mode of action 
in pursuing his purposes and ovei|throwiug systems of pro- 
foundest iniquity, to establish his truth upon earth through 
all time, to harmonize the infant churches and the few dis- 
ciples of Jesus, and to terminate the excitement which be- 
gan to appear, by giving, on the very threshold of the day 
of Christ, some pacific counsels and directions to allay 
conflicting passion, to reconcile opposing interests, and to 
harmonize every discordant feeling in the Church and 
among surrounding masses. Hence the profoundly wise 
and salutary advice, " Masters give unto your servants that 
which is equal and just,'' and, " Servants be obedient unto 
your masters." Thus the Roman empire was left undis- 
turbed, and the imminent dangers threatening the Church 
found a remedy. 

The modest and calm suggestions of the apostles, with- 
out controversy or debate, given to masters and servants, 
the parties interested in this matter, to make them recipro- 
cally more wise, affectionate, and faithful, were well calcu- 
lated to harmonize every perturbed and conflicting emotion 
discoverable among them to make the path of prudence 
and of duty plain for any ecclesiastical judicatories then in 
action or in prospect, and could not give offence to the 
proud, selfish, and irritable Roman. At the same time, 
their course of action removed from the infant churches of 
Jesus Christ an immense responsibility, and transferred an 
oppressive weight from their own burdened consciences to 
God himself, who had undoubtedly suggested their grand 
expedient in that crisis of peril. 

In the advice given in the IsTew Testament to masters 
and servants, by name, the institution of slavery is only 
indirectly recognised at all. The duties enjoined in these 
instructions are not made to derive their authority or sanc- 
tion from that institution. This is viewed as a mere Roman 
custom or regulation. But the duties are nevertheless 



65 



recommended as arising out of relations and agreements, 
a suitable observance of which, by christians as well as 
others, is necessary to the fulfilment of contracts between 
man and man, master and servant, to exemplify christian 
character and fidelity in this, as well as in every other re- 
lation of life. 

Christianity takes the world as it is, under its various 
laws, institutions, and customs, and instead of inculcating 
seditious and turbulent innovations, it requires men of 
every condition and grade, retrospectively as well as pro- 
spectively, to be honest, to be true and faithful to contracts 
already made, provided they were made according to exist- 
ing law and voluntarily sanctioned and established by long 
continued usage. Indeed, according to the divine plan and 
progress, it is evident that God did not intend or expect, by 
his Gospel, perfectly to regenerate and purify the world at 
the first touch. He contemplated from the beginning a 
gradual progressive conflict with the evil principles and 
habits of depraved men ; he furnished the Gospel, the grand 
magna charta, which he put into the hands of his servants, 
with such elementary magazines of truth and power as he 
knew would be mighty and effectual, in due time, to jpull 
clown the strongholds of iniquity in every form. Therefore, to 
accomplish their object, the apostles were not required, they 
had no right, were not bound, were not permitted as good 
citizens, to go back and hunt up reasons for disturbing so- 
ciety and government with schemes and projects of imme- 
diate reform and universal revolution, setting aside by vio- 
lence all the arrangements and compacts, however injurious 
they might prove, which had been long before enacted and 
observed. This they could not do, if they had the physical 
power, without an express order — "Thus saith the Lord!" 
Their commission was to preach the Gospel to every crea- 
ture. 

Hence servants are required to be " obedient to their 
own masters, doing the will of God from the heart, with 
good will doing service as to the Lord, and not to man, but 
in singleness of heart as unto Christ." Eph. vi. 5. Here 
the apostles decline all interference with the institution of 



66 



slavery as a political or civil establishment, and recommend 
to masters and servants, the parties involved, a strict ob- 
servance of their reciprocal obligations, without expressing 
any opinion in regard to the moral character of the institu- 
tion, or giving to it any sanction. 

The servants, douloi, were regarded as persons, not as 
things. They had rights, owned property, could legally 
transact business, collect debts due to them, bear witness 
in civil courts, plead and be impleaded before civil tribu- 
nals. The apostle Paul calls himself a doulos, a servant of 
Jesus Christ. 

In the passages quoted, and others similar to them, giving 
directions, the apostles speak of the relations of servants as 
they exist, without attempting to inquire, much less to de- 
cide, whether it is right to hold them in that condition. 
They leave the decision of this question to be settled by 
those who created or sanctioned the relation, and have a 
legal right to dispose of it. "While servants remain in this 
state by law, whether the law is right or wrong in principle, 
they must honestly discharge the duties arising out of it, 
if they desire to secure to themselves the character of true 
christians. Christianity found ^Tero exercising the most vio- 
lent and odious tyranny at Eome. Yet it says to christians 
living under his despotic and execrable reign, "Let every 
soul be subject to the higher powers, for there is no power 
but of God." And our Lord and his apostles lived as obedi- 
ent and orderly citizens under the bloody 'Nevo, Did this 
prove that the execrable government of 'Nero was right, no 
sin against God or man, or that they approved of that cor- 
rupt and violent code. The injunctions addressed to mas- 
ters are no more favorable to slavery than the advice ad- 
ministered to servants. 

The intelligent reader will observe that the statement 
of the Princeton writer goes the whole length of asserting 
that Christ and his apostles did not condemn slavery because 
they believed it loas not sinful. This is repeated several 
times in different forms. They approved of it, and therefore 
left it unmolested. How did the writer ascertain the apos- 
tles' mind upon this subject ? Their silence uttered no voice 



67 



like this. The assertion, however frequently repeated, is an 
utterly unwarrantable assumption, without the slightest 
foundation from anything expressed on this subject. Every 
reasonable and just inference, considering the character of 
the Gospel, is directly and positively opposed to this con- 
struction. 

The writer makes the public treatment which Christ and 
his apostles gave to peculiar vices, and the grade incident- 
ally assigned them in their public discourses, a standard by 
which to graduate the character and criminality of the va- 
rious vices that afflicted Eome. Hence his conclusion is, 
that iniemperance, sensual indulgence, fornication, adultery, all 
publicly denounced by the propagators of the Gospel, must 
have been, in their estimation, greater evils than slavery. 
This argument, the reader may perceive, runs over several 
of his pages. To make this mistaken judgment more pal- 
pable, his essay afterwards presents some of the shocking 
features which then pertained to the institution of slavery, 
which authorized masters to starve their slaves, to torture 
them, to beat them, to put them to death, and to throw 
them into their fish-ponds — language which he adopts from 
another, and makes his own. These monstrous cruelties and 
acts of savage barbarity, he intimates, were considered 
more harmless and innocent than the vices and immorali- 
ties named above ; because the}^ were not publicly de- 
nounced by the apostles under a distinct head and name, 
while several of the minor vices named above were re- 
proved. 1^0 w we think the silence of the apostles in regard 
to this monstrous system of slavery can be accounted for 
without resorting to the violent assumption or inference, 
that Christ and his apostles approved of it, or designed to 
indicate by their conduct the slightest sympathy for it. 
The idea that the Lord and his apostles " considered slave- 
ry not sinful," with such an exhibition of its fiendlike 
cruelty and barbarity as our writer has produced full in 
view, is absolutely shocking to humanity, and must be a 
dreadful slander against the holy and beneficent Saviour 
and his Gospel. Before the writer pronounced that, he 
ought to have had the most positive proof of it. " The 



68 



course they pursued," he adds, ''was sufficient evidence that they 
thought such scenes and such a system not sinful, and approved 
of it." Most monstrous ! "What have we come to ? 0 iem- 
pora, 0 mores I Is it possible that any sane man can be- 
lieve so absurd a thing ? We very much regret that our 
friend ever wrote that sentence, for his own sake. 

The first preachers of Christianity were required to be 
^'wise as serpents and harmless as doves." This injunc- 
tion from Heaven gave character to their preaching and 
general policy. They thought that " sufficient unto the 
day were the evils thereof," without rousing and arraying 
against them the whole slaveholding interest, power, and 
inveteracy of the Eoman empire on an alleged chui'ch dif- 
ficulty of a minor and transient nature, which a few words 
of prudent advice were found sufficient speedily to accom- 
modate. They adopted, therefore, by divine authority, a 
course of expediency, a pacification system, in their half 
dozen infant churches, and among their five, ten, or twenty 
discontented members, which proved satisfactory. The 
same thing has been accomplished by our ecclesiastical 
predecessors, treading in the steps of Christ and his apos- 
tles, several times in the Presbyterian church, since the 
year 1787.* 



CHAPTEE X. 

The argument considered from the severity of the Gospel against idolatry, and 
its gentleness towards slavery. — Slavery in AbrahanCs household in Judea, 
in Canaan, iu Egypt, examined. 

But the writer, still flattering himself that he may 
derive from this quarter aid to strengthen his desperate 
argument from the silence of the apostles on the subject 
of slavery, institutes, what he calls, an analogy between 



* See Presbyterian Digest. 



69 / 



slavery and idolatry ; and then asks, with apparent confi- 
dence and triumph, in substance — If they, the apostles? 
viewed slavery with so much indifference, and passed it by 
without rebuke, why should ihey so openly and repeatedly^ 
under all circumstances, so decidedl}^ denounce idolatry ? 
We will tell him why, to the conviction of every rational 
mind. The intelligent reader will perceive that the writer's 
mistake lies in considering these two institutions, in their 
character, ramifications, and many evil features and eftects, 
very much upon a jpar as possessing the same moral cha- 
racter and turpitude, whereas, when closely examined, 
there were no two physical and moral objects in the uni- 
verse between which there existed less parallelism or re- 
semblance. Ilis words are — " It will hardly be maintained 
that slavery was at that time more intimately interwoven 
with the institutions of society than idolatry was. It, i. e. 
idolatry, entered into the arrangements of every family, of 
every city and province, and of the whole Roman empire. 
Every department of the state, civil and military, was per- 
vaded by it. It was so united with the fabric of the go- 
vernment that it could not be removed without effecting a 
revolution in all its parts. The apostles knew this. They 
knew that to denounce ^o/^^Aei^m was to array against them 
the whole power of the state. Their Divine Master had 
distinctly apprized them of the result." 

Here, to give the writer the full weight of his argument, 
we shall quote his words still further : ^' He told them that 
it would set the father against the son, and the son against 
the father; the mother against the daughter, and the 
daughter against the mother; and that a man's enemies 
should be those of his own household." He said, that 
he came not to bring peace but a sword, and that such 
would be the opposition to his followers, that whosoever 
killed them would think "he did God service." And he 
adds, "yet in the view of these certain consequences, the 
apostles did denounce idolatry^ not merely in principle but 
by name. They adhered to their declaration, that idolatry 
was a heinous crime — and they were right." Here the 
writer is evidently pursuing his argument to prove the 

G 



70 



comparative sinlessness or innocence of slavery, from the 
fact, that Christ and his apostles reproved and condemned 
idolatry vs^ith vehemence, without pointedly or seriously 
censuring slavery at all in direct terms, even in its loorst 
form. By examining the course of the writer's argument, 
it will be seen that in the above statement we do him no 
injustice. 

Since these two evils, slavery and idolatry^ were coexist- 
ent, and as the writer assumes, of nearly equal extent and 
influence through the Roman empire, why did the Saviour 
pass so lightly by, almost entirely overlook slavery, merely 
prompting his apostles to employ some gentle advisory 
counsels to harmonize the difficulties on this subject, which 
troubled some of his first churches, but bring such tre- 
mendous force against idolatry ? "Why did he give his 
apostles admonitions and cautions so solemn and impres- 
sive — such vivid and startling foreshadowings and premo- 
nitions of the hostility and persecution they were to en- 
counter in attacking the idols and images, the superstitions 
and altars, of Koman idolatry, depicting to them scenes of 
violence and blood sufficient to shake the stoutest courage 
that earth had ever seen or Heaven itself inspired ? Now 
we venture to suggest that the writer's comparative view 
furnishes no argument at all in favor of slavery. "We think 
nothing can be plainer, in common sense and common 
candor, than that our Lord Jesus Christ saw this idolatry 
standing, with all its horrible features and triumphant 
power, immediately in the way of his heavenly mission, like 
an utterly insurmountable Chinese wall, stopping its pro- 
gress on the threshold. He foresaw that, whenever that 
wide-spreading and formidable system of apostacy and re- 
bellion against the throne of God should "be attacked, all 
the violent and exterminating hostility of the Koman em- 
pire would be promptly called into action for their exter- 
mination. Knowing the important import of the proverb, 
''forewarned, forearmed," to prepare his chosen leaders for 
the dreadful and unavoidable conflict approaching, he gave 
the solemn warnings which have been recited. 

Although slavery was a debasing and wicked system, 



71 



wide in its prevalence and desolating in its operation, it 
had not a feature of deformity to be compared with the in- 
finite and eternal malignity and guilt of idolatry. The one 
was a temporary calamity and polluting scourge which the 
Gospel contained elementary principles and energies with- 
in itself to remedy, a disease which it possessed power to 
cure. But the other was an atheistical obliteration, an entire 
expunging of the first idea of a true and eternal God : at 
one fell swoop, it expelled all religion from the universe, 
covered the earth with thick darkness, set the message 
from Heaven and its heralds at defiance, left all men un- 
pitied and helpless, lying in ruins, dead in trespasses and sins, 
literally without God and without hope in the world. Moved by 
this overwhelming sight of woe, the Divine Legate from 
the skies, the eternal Son of God, in obedience to the press- 
ing needs of earth and imperative mandate of Heaven, has- 
tens at the set time to bring relief, with the loud response, 
''Lo, I come to do thy will, O God !" to rebuild thy throne, 
which dumb idols have usurped and attempted to profane 
and demolish. Surely, in such a crisis, it is to be expected, 
it is right, that the minor ills of earth should touch lightly 
his heavenly mind, filled with the vast magnitude of the 
work before him. Light or darkness, God or no God ! that 
was the amazing question which absorbed him. 

Before the Gospel could take efiect, or advance one step, 
the true God must be successfully declared and re-en- 
throned, Satan must be cast out, and his false gods laid 
low. This was, therefore, the Saviour's starting point. 
The whole following process was here forced upon the re- 
presentative of the Eternal God, as his first point of assault 
upon the kingdom of Satan. Here he commenced his at- 
tack upon the empire of darkness. Hence the solemn ad- 
monitions which are above recited. Here is the key, which 
the Princeton essayist failed to find, to unlock the imagi- 
nary labyrinth which so bewildered him. This is the na- 
tural and just solution of the denunciations so cumulative- 
ly poured like peals of thunder upon the system of idolatry, 
the mystery of iniquity which so tyrannized over the Roman 
empire, and disputed the entrance of the King of Kings. 



Our Lord having not tlie least reference to the subject of 
slavery in this relation in any of his V7ords or actions, the 
writer's analogy proves to be a fiction, and his argument, 
of course, a failure. 

But, say the advocates of slavery, the sacred Scriptures 
nowhere condemn that institution. ISTot only did the Sa- 
viour and his apostles pass lightly over it without condemn- 
ing it, but it existed in the days of Abraham, as he appears 
to have employed slaves to aid him in executing his im- 
portant business, for many purposes of. defence and emolu- 
ment and of convenience and pleasure around his resi- 
dence and upon his extensive possessions. 

But considering that this illustrious patriarch lived about 
four thousand years ago, almost in the infancy of the'world, 
an argument of this kind drawn from his example, when 
fairly viewed, appears to us like gleaning from a fairy field. 
Moses wrote nearly three hundred years after Abraham's 
day. That age, in all its features, was peculiar. Its ordi- 
nances, rites, and habits were contingent and in a very 
dishevelled state, to be put in order and established on cor- 
rect and stable principles, as society and government ad- 
vanced towards maturity. The division of property, which 
principally marks civilization, had been but partially intro- 
duced. The improvement of the earth was in its first stage. 
The account given by Moses of the incessant changes and 
migrations of families, tribes, and companies, and even of 
Abraham himself, shows that the condition of society was 
very simple and unformed. Observe the arrangement which 
took place between Abraham and Lot, in the selection, di- 
vision, and distribution of some of the most improved and 
valuable public lands. The transactions appear as if there 
had been no other land claimants in that region. Lot took 
undisputed possession of the plains of Jordan, extensive, 
well watered, dotted with villages, and very fertile. Abra- 
ham, in like manner, took Canaan, as far as his eyes could 
reach " northward and southward, eastward and west- 
ward," to an indefinite amount, probably exceeding many 
scores of thousands of acres, without competition, price, or 
violence. The earth was little tilled ; grain crops scarcely 



T3 



known ; a few natural delicate fruits or wild grapes ap- 
peared sparsely around; grass was the chief, almost the 
only reliance for sustaining life. Abraham's vast domain 
was made productive, almost exclusively, by his countless 
flocks and herd&. His life was that of a shepherd. His vast 
area was one undivided common, unsubdued and unfenced. 
The only middle separation lines were maintained by the 
presence of the numerous sub-shepherds, who located their 
moveable shanties on the hills and in the valleys, and de- 
rived a precarious subsistence, in common with their great 
landlord, from the numerous flocks they watched and fed. 
Their business did not prescribe a life of toil, and their 
minds were free as the mountain air. Cracked corn, the 
pail, the churn, and the rude wilderness slaughter stall 
were the common and almost only reliance of that early 
age for the chief articles and very few luxuries of life, 
Abraham's vast glebe was parcelled out by ridges and 
groves, rivers and valleys ; their natural boundaries ten- 
anted, stocked, and superintended by a numerous company 
of hired men^ tenants, and overseers, on conditions and 
by names not definitely marked in the Mosaic account, be- 
-cause numerous, variable, and fluctuating with circum- 
stances. The original term by v/hich this numerous order 
of assistants was known in general was that of servarU, be- 
■cause they served Abraham's interests, were in some uu- 
described manner tributary to him for the lands they occu- 
pied and the privileges they enjoyed. Around and near 
his dwelling were clustered a group of select men, called 
trained servants, to wait npon his person, to assist, in his 
household, to perform rude services of mechanical skill, 
according to the simple ideas of that day^, to execute mis- 
sions and trust agencies, to meet incidental calls and pur- 
poses of defence, if required, from surrounding foes. To 
these, that they might be prepared for every emergency in 
iin infant society, and exposed as they were to aggressions 
from the surrounding Heathen and more than semi-barba- 
rous hosts, Abraham would naturally extend pecuhar at- 
tention, both in their first selection and subsequent treat- 
iment 

G* 



74 



The manner in which the patriarch treated his servants 
is very remarkable and significant. He intrusted them with 
arms, and appointed them as his personal guards. In pre- 
ference to relations, they were to be his heirs in case of the 
failure of lawful inheritors. The oldest servant was a per- 
son of great consideration in his family. To him Isaac was 
subordinate, even at the age of forty. Abraham bound him, 
by an oath, not to marry his son Isaac to any of the daugh- 
ters of the land. T\^hat a momentous trust I In no particu- 
lar does it appear that he treated any one of them as a 
slave. The great error of slavery advocates consists in their 
]]ot distinguishing between slaves, as understood in modern 
days, and servants or hired men, as understood at all times, 
both early and late. A slave is not regarded as a person, 
but as a thing ; he is a mere chattel ^personal. Men, women, 
and children are accounted as mere articles of property or 
merchandise. 

If it should be asserted that Abraham bought servants 
with his money, it is admitted that the language describing 
this transaction in our translation runs in this form. But 
the word here rendered "bought," signifies, also, acquired, 
got, procured, obtained, Abraham got his servants sometimes 
with his money, just as we obtain white servants with our 
money, generally, if not always, by contract with the ser- 
vant himself. This mode of procuring servants is referred 
to in Job, where, in regard to the Leviathan, it is asked, 
" Will he make a covenant with thee ? "Wilt thou take him 
for a servant for ever ?" Something of the same kind seems 
to be referred to among the Israelites : " If a stranger or 
sojourner wax rich by thee, and thy brother that dwelleth 
by him wax poor, and sell himself unto the stranger," etc. 
Abraham, it is also believed, got servants from the Heathen, 
who had taken them in war, to ameliorate their condition 
as an act of benevolence, by exchanging his gentle servi- 
tude and comfortable residence in his house for wretched 
bondage. Wives were frequently bought for sei-vice ren- 
dered, -ferae bought his wife for fourteen years of service 
to her father. David paid for his by military service. Joseph 
bought the Israelites to be Pharoah's servants, to work his 



f5 



lands, on the condition of their paying a large rent. In 
Abraham's family, his servants were considered and 
treated as children, as intimated in the l^ew Testament : 
" J^ow I say, that the heir, as long as he is a child, differ- 
eth nothing from a servant, though he be Lord of all." 
Servants could intermarry in the family. They were not 
permitted to be separated from their children ; they were 
invited guests in all their family and national festivals ; 
they enjoyed the same privileges of instruction, the same 
code of civil laws, with their employers ; they could be 
witnesses in civil courts where masters were impleaded. 
And so far from allowing or encouraging traffic in servants, 
Moses furnished the most rigid prohibition of it possible : 
" He that stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be found 
in his hand, he shall surely be put to death." 

It often happens that the employee is fully equal in 
character and standing, if not superior, to the employer. 
The servants of Abraham appear to have been men of 
character and rank. The messenger who was sent to bring 
home a wife for Isaac was treated in his mission with great 
consideration, and cannot be contemplated now without 
veneration and respect. This is a tribute due to his address 
and fidelity. The ability and success of his agency will 
never cease to be admired. And yet, probably because 
such exhibitions were not unfrequent, nothing is said of 
his personal accomplishments to distinguish him from his 
numerous associates in the cottage and in the field. Yet 
the writer before us seems to flatter himself that he has 
found in his visionary conjectures such facts and analogies 
between Abraham's servants and the degraded and miser- 
able victims of slavery existing in this unhappy land, as to 
vindicate all the abominations of the system, in its worst 
forms, and to recite, as a prolific source of apology for this 
purpose, the example set in the simplest era of the world 
by faithful Abraham, when there is no evidence that slave- 
ry existed at all. 

It is true he had in his employment hirelings, men bought 
with money, which terms are often used as convertible in 
the original tongues. In the same manner, we daily hire 



or buy and compensate freemen. But criticism upon words 
in an ancient language, incidental terms, technical distinc- 
tions in history, and especially in the ancient tongue 
in which Moses is supposed to have written ; so soon after 
the confusion of Babel, when language was fluctuating and 
migratory, like the tribes and locations it records, we dis- 
card as utterly equivocal, and furnishing no certain ground 
for an argument in favor of slavery. What language was 
most used in the days of Abraham and Moses, is still a 
point undecided in philology. Many able competitors for 
linguistic priority and pre-eminence between the Chaldean, 
Hebraic, and Chinese dialects are still in the field present- 
ing tenacious claims. The precise distinction between slave, 
servant, hireling, laborer, tenant, overseer, or assistant of any 
kind, is very obscurely and equivocally marked in the lan- 
guages which were in popular use at that early period of 
the world. On the whole, it appears very evident that the 
argumenticm ex silentio and ex exemplo in favor of modern 
slavery is the product of pertinacious zeal to gain a point 
or establish a system, much more than to exhibit and con- 
firm the plain honest truth. "With regard to Abraham's 
military excursion and triumph, so much celebrated in this 
connection, the simple fact, that the art of war was not 
taught, and that standing armies did not exist, makes it 
perfectly natural that the good old patriarch in such an 
emergency as occurred, requiring prompt and vigorous ac- 
tion, should collect all the men he had employed, or could 
discover around his extensive premises, to repel invasion, to 

* To show the indefiniteness with which the term servant was used in ancient 
eras in the Eastern world, the following instances, out of hundreds, are adduced. 
In king David's Philistine wars it is recorded, 1 Chronicles xviii. 2 — "And 
he smote Moab; and the Moabites became David's servants, and brought gifts." 
Were the Moabites in mass made slaves of David ? Verse 6 — " Then David put 
garrisons in Syria; Damascus and the Syrians became David's servant?," etc. 
Verse 13 — " and he put garrisons in Edom; and all the Edomites became David's 
servants," etc. Now the obvious import of the term here is, that these people o; 
tribes were successively reduced to subjection politicalli/ by the force of king 
David's arms. The same ambiguity runs through a great part of the New Tes- 
tament history. We give one sample : Mark i. 20 — " And straightway 1 e called 
them ; and they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, 
and went after him." 



recover plunder, or assist others who might need his aid, to 
rescue at least one captive dear to him. 

The family of Jacob, who went down into Eg}^pt and 
dwelt there, were placed in such a situation, and continued 
there so long that their condition is described by Moses 
as a state of bondage, and Egypt itself is sometimes referred 
to in sacred Scripture as the house of bondage. It may be 
worth while to consider briefly what that condition really 
was, as a proper understanding of that point will some- 
what enable us to explain the character of the slavery, as 
some w^ould call it, then prevalent there and among the 
heathen nations, as well as in the Jewish state. There can 
be no doubt that the family of Jacob, who went down into 
Egypt as a colony, were free men. ^Notwithstanding the 
sympathy of the Egyptians for Joseph, they disliked his 
brethren from the beginning, primarily because they were 
accustomed to the life of shepherds, which was an abomi- 
nation to the Egyptians. But still they were located in the 
land of Goshen, which abounded in grass. In the season of 
universal want and suffering, produced by famine, Joseph 
bought all the land of Egypt, and the people with their land, 
without discrimination, for Pharoh, that is, he made an ar- 
rangement with them to secure their labor on the soil. One 
common ratio, or per centum, was fixed and observed in 
dividing the proceeds of the land — one-fifth to the crown, 
diXidi four fifths to the people. It was not long before the 
envy and the hatred of the native inhabitants prompted 
the agents of the crown to indulge their dislike by impos- 
ing upon the Israelites increased burdens, in the form of 
more difficult service and higher rents. The whole detail 
may be found in Genesis xlvii. chapter, and Exodus, chap- 
ter I., etc. 

The first arrangement was evidently intended to be tran- 
sient. From the incongeniality of the parties, permanently 
harmonious and happy intercourse could not have been 
reasonably anticipated. This impression is sanctioned by 
the prophetic assurances of Joseph, and also from the de- 
cisive avowal of the new king. Ex. i. 10 — " Come, let us deal 
wisely," that is artfully, "with them, and so get them up 



7g 

out of the land." The rapid increase of the Israelitish 
company in numbers, and success of their pastoral and 
agricultural enterprise, stimulated the Egyptian encroach- 
ments. The complaints and expostulations of their own 
officers did not prevent the oppressions inflicted on them. 
Many aggravations were artfully contrived, as the servants 
of Pharoh avowed, " to make the lives of the Israelites 
bitter with hard bondage in mortar and in brick and in the 
field, and to drive them out of the country." I^ow this 
reference to Mosaic history is to convince every reader that, 
although the labor of the Israelites in Goshen is often de- 
scribed as a bondage, a heavy bondage, so as to make the ex- 
pression proverbially a type or prefiguration, and as some 
seem to think, an identification of modern slavery, there 
is really, when closely examined, in the whole history 
nothing which sanctions the supposition that slavery, as 
now understood, was to be found in Egypt or in any of the 
Chaldean or Canaanitish countries. Hence, if a modified 
form of slavery had really grown out of the circumstances 
stated, and existed in the manner alleged by pro-slavery 
men uncondemned through these districts of the Eastern 
world, that exhibition would not warrant their inference in 
favor of modern slavery. But, as we have sufficient evi- 
dence to sustain a belief that no such thing was practised 
among the nations referred to, such inferences and argu- 
ments really dwindle into entire insignificance. 

Besides what has been already stated, we may add, that 
the Israelites in Egypt held a large amount of property 
distinct from the possessions of the Egyptians. They had 
their own separate families and dwellings ; they were en- 
couraged to keep arms, and were always prepared for mili- 
tary conflict ; they had their own government, laws, and 
magistrates : their great oppression consisted in being re- 
quired to perform too much service for the king, as his 
tenants, though they were large sharers in the produce. 
This was their slavery ; they were free by nature and by 
previous habit, and were unwilling to endure the least de- 
gree of arbitrary or oppressive control or exaction. It is a 
notorious fact, that they had leisure, notwithstanding their 



79 



excessive toils, to learn and practise several of the fine arts. 
The only cruelty inflicted upon their families was the de- 
struction of their male children ; and this was the enforce- 
ment of a great state measure, as the Egyptians thought, 
for the safety of their kingdom. They lived in abundance 
in their designated Goshen. Instead of feeding on a quart, 
each, a day of corn, they sat hy the flesh-pots, and did eat bread 
to the full. They ate "fish freely, cucumbers, melons, leeks, 
onions, and garlic." No restrictions were imposed upon 
their intellectual improvement or religious privileges. Is it 
possible that such a people, who had in their hardest con- 
dition enjoyed such easy terms, could have been miserable, 
oppressed, and suffering slaves f And then, as a sure and 
effectual deliverance from such a condition, if any were 
found in it, as a guard against their returning to it, the di- 
vine enactment was proclaimed — " And ye shall hallow the 
fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land 
unto all the inhabitants thereof." 

Eoman servility, respecting which cotemporary historians 
speak distinctly, was of a very different character, infinitely 
more repulsive and disgusting, long before the incarnation 
of Christ. Here also we observe, that the relation of supe- 
rior and inferior, of strength, abundance, and independence, 
on the one hand, and of weakness, poverty, and depend- 
ence, on the other, has always, more or less, existed among 
men, and probably always will in some small degree. But 
these relations do not constitute slavery. 

Slavery was never authorized in the Jewish statutes ; 
never such a thing as chattelism existed in the Hebrew na- 
ti5n. The laws of Moses, instead of authorizing slavery in 
this inhuman form, were intended to prevent it as a per- 
manent institution. This was his object in his laws and re- 
gulations in regard to obtaining servants — making volun- 
tary contracts to procure the labor of free men for a limited 
time. This was called buying them with money. To prevent 
extension, abuse, oppression, or running it out into perma- 
nent slavery, the contract was limited to six years. Nothing 
is more common now than buying men in this manner, 
hiring free men for one or more years to labor, to serve in 



80 



a particular capacity, or to perform a specific piece of work 
at a stipulated rate, even if it require years to accomplish 
it. In the Mosaic code, to exclude the possibility of pro- 
tracted slavery or servitude of any kind, such contracts 
were so limited that in all cases they could not be continued 
beyond the next jubilee, when every human creature in the 
land became fully liberated from all similar obligations. At 
the same time the principle was settled, that no child should 
be born a slave. In this, the Jewish system corresponded 
with our own enactment in New Jersey, which is con- 
sidered subversive of all attempts at slavery in this state 
for ever. The practice of making contracts with the 
Heathen for labor or service was based upon the principle 
of hiiing or paying wages, and these are the arrangements 
which are sometimes described as j^^iying price. But these 
agreements were entirely temporary, the Mosaic code itself 
furnishing ample evidence that the Jewish system was in- 
tended much more to prevent than to establish slavery. 
The surrounding and neighboring nations, Babylon and 
Tyre, Greece and Rome, untouched as yet by the power 
of revealed truth, encourged the slave trade. But Judea, 
though fully exposed to the contaminating influence of 
their evil example, firmlj^ resisted the power of all heathen 
imposture, its idols and its altars. And in perfect consist- 
ency, it never opened a slave mart. 



CHAPTER XI. 

Particular view of God's toleration — ^its consisteuc}- and beauty, etc. — Fallacy of 
the argument for slavery from lenity of Jesus Christ farther exhibited. — The 
permissive feature in divine government. 

The patience and long suffering of God towards the cor- 
rupt inhuman institution of slavery, affords no evidence and 
no argument in its vindication, against the charge of in- 



81 



vasion and usurpation of human rights. The divine lenity 
and forbearance in this relation merely exhibit his perfect 
consistency in his administration towards all sin and un- 
righteousness. God is full of toleration and is slow to an- 
ger. In remedying moral evils of every grade, mercy is 
his preferred instrumentality. But God early gave notice 
to the world, in all its complicate and aggravated iniqui- 
ties, that his suspended judgments should not always slum- 
ber — " My spirit shall not always strive with man."* While 
the Most High proclaimed that justice and judgment were 
around about his throne, he declared that mercy should for 
ever go before his face. In confirmation of this truth, God 
has placed on record, for the instruction of every age, strik- 
ing instances of suspended execution, where judgment 
seemed to be "demanded. To establish this general prin- 
ciple, let us look at a few instances. When God saw that 
the wickedness of man was great upon earth, and had re- 
solved to destroy all flesh, few excepted, the great truth is 
unequivocally recorded in the sacred record. 1 Pet. iii. 20 — 
^' The long suffering of God waited, in the days of IToah, 
one hundred and twenty years, while the ark was prepar- 
ing, before the flood came and destroyed the race of man, 
eight souls only being saved." Similar toleration was ex- 
ercised towards the wicked cities of the plain before God 
rained upon them fire and brimstone, and destroyed them. 
This long suffering feature of God's government towards 
the wicked and their corrupt institutions is manifested in 
the following threat of wrath and ruin against certain Ca- 
naanites, who had made themselves offensive in his sight — 
" The iniquity ot the Amorites is not yet full." Gen. xv. 
16. And in regard to a company of Israelites who had 
grievously sinned, God reiterates more clearly the same 
menace — "Their foot shall slide in due time, and the 
things which shall come upon them make haste." Dent. 
XXXII. 35. It is true that God's \o\\<f sufterins: is ofteu 
abused, and used as a motive to increased and continued 
transgression, rather than reformation; but still it confirms 



* Genesis. 
H 



S2 

the principle maintained. " Because sentence against an 
evil work is not speedily executed, the heart of the sons of 
men is fully set in them to do evil." Ecc. viii. 11. "There- 
fore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious." Isaiah 
XXX. 18. An astonishing instance of his forbearance to- 
wards the proud and impious, after their certain and posi- 
tive overthrow had been determined, is eloquently depicted 
in the seventy-third Psalm. In such cases the following 
language will apply : " These things hast thou done, and I 
kept silence ; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such 
an one as thyself; but I will reprove thee and set them in 
order before thine eyes." Psalm l. 21. It was the same tole- 
ration which had been exhibited in the divine government, 
towards all the rebellions and iniquities of the preceding 
four thousand years, that suffered slavery to'^exist in Rome, 
in common with other flagrant private and public immo- 
ralities, to pass on without any direct and positive reproval. 
" Thus God is not slack concerning his promise, as some 
men count slackness, but is long suffering towards us." In 
the same manner God long tolerated heathen idolatry, the 
greatest of all evils, till, in the prosecution of his plans of 
mercy towards fallen man, its farther endurance, without 
striking and decisive demonstrations against its tyrranny, 
guilt, and utter desolation, became morally impossible. 
There was a special and absolute necessity for God's inter- 
position to destroy idolatry in the day of Christ's ministry 
upon earth. Hence the frequent and solemn denunciations 
littered against it, and the public and impressive proclama- 
tion against it and all its accompanying and resulting in- 
iquities, which were mainly pointed against the throne of 
Heaven. " The times of this ignorance God winhed at, but 
now commandeth all men everywhere to repent ; because 
he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world 
in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained." 
Acts XVII. 30-1. 

The inferential argument in favor of slavery from the 
silence of the apostles, if it prove anything, proves too 
much. Does any sane man believe that God is pleased 
with wars, famines, pestilence, floods, conflagrations, tern- 



88 



pests, murders, massacres, etc., because he does not specifi- 
cally denounce or positively prevent them ? Is slavery to 
be considered harmless and guiltless because God does not 
proceed instantly with armed force to suppress it ? Has not 
the sovereign of the world reserved to himself the right to 
select his own objects of pursuit, to determine his own 
times and modes of action within his own dominions? Let 
the cavillers of earth be cautious in attempting, with their 
feeble probosces, to explore those vast and unknown re- 
gions of sovereign wisdom and power where angels gaze, 
but fear to tread. The truth is, God's course of patient 
forbearance, manifested in all ages towards moral as well as 
physical evil, in every form and degree, and by which the 
world exists and the season of grace is protracted, consti- 
tutes the most magnificent and attractive view we can take 
of his government and providence over rebellious and 
ruined man. And his blessed Son and chosen co-workers 
may not be charged with weakness or default by puny pur- 
blind reasoners, who, for lack of vision, discover only specks 
where his most splendid glories shine. 

In treating the subject of the divine agency in regard to 
the introduction and prevalence of slavery so extensively 
over the earth, the same broad and tangible distinction 
must be made between a permissive providence and a posi- 
live enactment of God, that is made by all sound orthodox 
writers and moralists in regard to the entrance of sin into 
the world and all its consequent woes. 

That no event can take place upon earth without God's 
knowledge and permissive concurrence, we do not doubt ; 
but that God predetermined, and hence positively required, 
that the colored portion of the human race and many of 
the whites, wherever located, should be subjected to cap- 
tivity, held in a state of bondage to their fellow men, made 
chattels and merchandise, the perpetrators being held guilt- 
less and their acts innocent, we utterly deny, for reasons 
above suggested, and ever will, until the murderers of the 
Lord Jesus Christ are proved to be innocent men, because 
the bloody tragedy of the cross was committed " by the 
determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God." The 



84 



plea set up by slaveholders and tlieir advocates, that this 
institatioii is the appointment of God, in such a manner 
and extent as to excuse its crimes and cruelties, to vindi- 
cate its propagators and advocates, is incompatible v^ith 
the perfections of Jehovah and with his revealed truth and 
righteous government. 

The self-conflicting contradictory position before the uni- 
verse, in which the assumption of pro-slavery men on this 
subject places the supreme Lord of all, ought to impress 
reflecting candid minds most unfavorably towards their 
perverted view of it. " God will have all men to be saved, 
and the creature shall be delivered from the bondage of 
corruption," are his plain and positive declarations. In ac- 
cordance with this purpose. He selects, inspires, and com- 
missions a company of men to execute his will: "Go ye 
into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature; 
he that believeth shall be saved," etc. Mark xvi. 16. To 
carry into eftect this sublime mission, God instituted a 
mighty system of grace and love, justice and mercy, to go 
forth to the nations, .accompanied by his Almighty spirit, 
as a remedy for human corruption, guilt, and misery, to 
reconcile to himself the apostate and guilty race, and to 
amalgamate the jarring elements of fallen humanity in one 
homogeneous holy happy company. The two combined 
objects of this heavenly mission were presented in bold 
and striking outlines by the evangelical prophet long be- 
fore the advent of our Saviour. " The spirit of the Lord 
is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach good 
tidings unto the meek : he hath sent me to bind up the 
broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the 
opening of the prison to them that are bound ; to proclaim 
the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance 
of our God; to comfort all that mourn." 

God could not approve of any system of action opposed 
to his. The idea, that in sending his Son into the world 
to redeem the fallen race, and establish upon earth a king- 
dom of righteousness and peace, to instruct, remodel, and 
fit candidates for a future state of perfect happiness, should 
at the same time authorize a rebellious portion, a pre-emi- 



85 



nently daring and violent host of revolters against his glo- 
rious scheme of deliverance, to seize upon a very large and 
indefinite mass of his ransomed millions, strip them of all 
their essential rights and privileges, and hurry them away 
into a desperate state of privation and bondage, to groau 
away their miserable existence in anguish and unavailing 
tears, seems so utterly inconsistent and repugnant to reason 
and common sense, and so infinitely in conflict with the 
divine perfection, justice, and goodness, that we cannot 
conceive how any mind possessing just moral perception 
and feeling can calmly and satisfactorily tolerate the 
thought Wherever the Gospel has travelled it has left 
trophies of its power, immortal fruits to God's praise and 
glory; and it is still going forth, w^ith resistless energy, 
conquering and to conquer. No power has ever appeared 
upon earth, except idolatry, more directly and obstinately 
hostile than slavery to the redeeming system of God's mer- 
cy wherever it has prevailed, in proportion to the number 
of subjects it counts, and the extent of soil it covers. It 
stands with all its repulsive features, its ignorance and 
hardness, its crimes and cruelties, its debasement and 
wretchednesf5, obstructing the march of Christianity, insur- 
mountably shutting up, not preparing, the way of the Lord. 
The desolations and horrors which mark the progress and 
the reign of slavery more than rival the countless and 
crimsoned cruelties of war, of pestilence, of famine, of 
earthquakes, floods, and tempests ; and yet our Princeton 
friend, w^hoever he may be, in terms surprising to us, has 
summoned resolution enough to pronounce this awful sys- 
tem right, not sinful, no crime — pleasant in the sight of God, 
and from man scarcely deserving a frown. Opposition to 
God's plans and movements of mercy from other quarters, 
obstructions to the march of his truth and grace, we doubt 
not he would denounce as wicked and ruinous, but slavery, 
the gigantic and arch enemy, whose name is Legion, for 
its victims and its abettors are countless, which occupies a 
wide field with its successes and desolations, he would 
clothe with the garb of sinlessness, as undeserving the con- 
demnation of earth or of Heaven. 

H* 



86 



But how is it possible that God should approve of such 
a rapacious crusade against his stupendous Gospel enter- 
prise and his own eternal glory ? Was he insincere when 
he laid the foundation of this magnificent scheme ? Has 
he seen cause to change his eternal purpose, to alter his 
gracious plan, or retard his merciful movement, in regard 
to vast provinces of his apostate dominions, to encourage 
the hostile and criminal intruders who should dare to usurp 
dominion over soil redeemed by the blood of his Son, and 
consecrated to true Gospel liberty and life ? These ques- 
tions involve parodoxes, which pro-slavery men are bound 
to explain and to reconcile with the wisdom, holiness, and 
stability of God in all his gracious announcements and 
transactions. His measures, in the governing processes of 
his material kingdom, are rectilinear and uniform, neither 
transverse nor retrograde. He that directs a}id controls 
the superior and inferior globes of inert matter, in all their 
sempiternal revolutions and conjunctions, with such aston- 
ishing precision and exactness in time and place, we would 
infer with confidence, will certainly pursue a definite and 
undeviating policy in the more exalted sphere of mind and 
mercy, which more intimately and profoundly involves the 
happiness of fallen man and the glories of his own eternal 
Godhead. 



CHAPTEE XII, 

An inquiry intx) the correctness of several of the Princetoniau's opinions and 
speculations in regard to slaveiy, etc. 

The attention of the writer of these pages was particu- 
larly attracted, somewhat recently, by a warm eulogy^ in the 
New York Observer, upon an article published several 
years since, in the Princeton Eepcrtory, in vindication of 
slavery. This periodical, being considered by many as the 



87 



organ of the Presbyterian ctLurch, and certainly the index 
of her theological opinions and moral sentiments, seems 
not only to invite, but to require respectful examination. 

We infer, from this article, that the writer's principal 
object in it was to combat and correct what he regards as 
the mistaken policy of a class of men whom he designates 
as aholiiionists. Had he confined himself to that point, he 
would have saved us much trouble. But at various points 
in his discursive and complex treatise, he seems to forget 
and diverge from the belligerent position assumed towards 
the abolitionists in the outset, and migrates into an open 
and avowed defender, and even advocate of slavery, which 
brings him into conflict not only with all Christendom, but 
especially with the church, to whose interests, principles, 
and policy the Repertory is generally considered pledged. 

The writer commences with a fair profession — *'It is our 
object not to discuss the subject of slavery upon abstract 
principles." He afterwards adds, "in pronouncing upon 
the moral character of an act, it is obviously necessary to 
have a clear idea of what it is: yet," he remarks, "how 
few of those who denounce slavery have any well defined 
conception of its nature ! They have a confused idea of 
chains and luliips, of degradation and misery, of ignorance 
and vice^ and to this complex conception they apply the 
name of slavery, and denounce it as the aggregate of all 
moral and physical evil." — p. 298. His first declaration in 
favor of slavery he gives as a deduction, " that slaveholding 
is not necessarily sinful," which is followed by an unfortu- 
nate fallacy in his argument, perhaps the key to his whole 
tissue of errors. " The grand mistake, as we apprehend, 
of those who maintain that slaveholding is itself a crime, is 
that they do not discriminate between slaveholding, in itself 
considered, audits accessories (consequences) at any particular 
•time or place." The writer charges upon the opposers of 
slavery, that they do not discriminate between slavery and 
its evil results. But surely it may be charged upon the advo- 
cates of slavery, with much greater propriety, that they at- 
tempt against nature, against all experience and/fld, to sepa- 
rate cause and ejf'ect, to disjoin what the whole slave territory 



88 



of the world exhibits in close connection, slavery and a 
hige mass of privations and sufferings among slaves. They 
press this allegation so far as to deny the very existence of 
the monstrous evils uniformlv and certainlv followins: 
slavery, and connected with it in all cases. Hence the 
writer's obvious meaning is, that to form a just and accu- 
rate opinion of slavery, we must discriminate between 
slaveholding^ in itself considered^ and its fruits^ results, or 
consequences, such as are enumerated by him, " maltreat- 
ments, severe laws, oppressive measures of any kind." The 
expression slaveholdiiig, in itself considered, from his very fre- 
quent use of it, we conclude is a very favorite phrase or 
idea, carrying in it some charm or power greatly to 
strengthen his argument. It seems to be used as a hiding 
place or screen for the deformity and guilt of slavery. He 
tells us that these deformities, to which he refers in quite a 
long catalogue — "withholding instruction, interfering with 
marital and parental rights, insults and oppression from 
the whites, inadequate remuneration, physical discomfort, 
moral degradation," etc., are mere possibilities, contingen- 
cies, which may or may not appear in practical slavehold- 
iug. 'Now it is very appropriate and important here first 
to ask, who is to decide when and where these evil results, 
so appalling, shall appear? TVhere is the authority de- 
posited or invested which is to control this monstrous 
power, feature, or result of slaveholding ? All grades of 
infliction, oppression, and cruelty, from the minutest to the 
most violent and excessive, are embraced in this power, a 
power which is undeniably lodged in the breast of the slave- 
holder alone. Many millions of rational and immortal be- 
ings are committed by this system, for time and for eter- 
nity, to the arbitrary disposal of ichora — most certainly 
exclusively and unlimitcdly to the slaveholders themselves, 
except so far as civil power may sometimes interpose to 
restrain their selfish, avaricious, and violent passions. But 
this restriction rarely is exercised in a slave country. AVo 
do not wonder that the writer should make a studious and 
artful eftbrt to get these attendants of the slave system out 
of sight, as far as possible, by abstraction, though it is the 



89 



very thing which in the beginning he had pledged himself 
to avoid. 

This attempt of that writer to establish the sinlessness of 
slavery, by taking away from it all its natural attributes 
and universal concomitants, by picturing it to his imagina- 
tion and to others, if possible, as a very little harmless 
thing without cause or effect, indeed scarcely existing at 
all, we think he will find an unavailing artifice. It is hard 
to persuade men who have some knowledge and sagacity, 
by putting fire behind a screen partially out of sight, that 
it will not burn, or to pervert and unsettle the primary con- 
ceptions and decisions of men respecting the moral char- 
acter of any custom or system of action by detaching from 
it, as far as possible, those injurious and criminal effects, 
which, in conformity with the laws of nature, of mind, and 
uniform experience, in every case and in every age, have 
accompanied or fiowed from it. Wherever the nature and 
moral effects of slavery have been developed, the fruits 
here ascribed to it have uniformly grown out of it, and 
followed it in close and immediate connection. Instead of 
referring us, for an illustration of his sinless slavery^ to 
slavery as he imagines it existed in the family of Abraham, 
about four thousand years ago, be that slavery what it 
might, certainly infinitely removed from all analogy to the 
slavery now in question, he ought to point us to an in- 
stance, in the history of modern slavery, where it existed 
without those deplorable fruits, which are now pronounced, 
on full experience, to be its legitimate offspring. Instead 
of this, he tells us that the grand mistake of anti-slavery 
men consists in their not discriminating between slave- 
holding, in itself considered, and its accessories, that is, con- 
sequences and results. This place, in itself considered, is a 
private retreat, where the writer would conceal from view 
all the enormous features of this hideous system ; but his 
effort is vain, " they will out,'' 



90 



CHAPTER XIII. 

The abstraction of the Repertory examined on scriptural grounds, and its fal- 
lacy exposed. 

To this attempt at abstraction in general we reply, that 
on opening any legal statute book, we find no room for any 
such distinction as this writer makes between the name and 
the thing signified, they being considered synonymous — 
a unit in the eye and operation of the law. The terms em- 
ployed are intended exclusively to indicate the practical 
realities or results implied ; as, for example, felony, arson, 
burglary, robbery, etc., each of which terms comprehends 
and exhibits, as in perspective, the overt acts which consti- 
tute, characterize, and identify the crime specified. In de- 
fining the moral character of an act, it is the principle 
chiefly that is regarded, though both the root and branch 
of crime are embraced in the view and estimate of it. The 
principle in sin is the same, whether the act consists of 
taking an apple or a kingdom. There is enough in slavery, 
considering it as far as possible abstractly in itself, as we 
shall see, to prove it to be a superlative iniquity. Slavehold- 
ing is to be especially designated and estimated by its fruits, 
which constitute the test our Saviour appointed for all 
characters and actions. 

It is impossible to conceive of slavery without having 
before your mind the comprehensive, complex, and disgust- 
ing image, or spectacle, of a company of slaves, the idea 
of painful subjection and bondage, of privation, of hard 
labor, of dependence upon the will and caprice of another, 
of ignorance and degradation, with all the accompanying 
features of sufiering, because no man ever saw a slavehold- 
ing establishment, a negro stocked farm, in operation un- 
attended with these exhibitions. They therefore compose 
the material, the essence of slaveholding, in itself considered. 
Hence a late candid writer, favorable to slavery, says — 
" Slavery cannot be conceived of apart from a master and 
a slave." He admits of no abstraction. In thinking upon 



91 



the subject, there is a necessary and constant reference to 
the form in which slavery exists in our own country : hence 
abstraction is impossible. Slaveholding is the root of a tree, 
a iipas^ which branches out and ramifies itself in every di- 
rection, upon every limb of which the mind perceives clus- 
ters of poisonous fruits in various stages of maturity. And it 
is worse than in vain to say, the fruit being partially con- 
cealed under the leaves, or more abstractly in the root or 
sap, the tree is harmless, it will not poison ; because all 
this time the venom is essentially in it in full vigor. 

But the writer, to give his idea of abstraction as much 
prominence and force as possible while trying to put these 
fruits out of sight, endeavors to diminish the enormities of 
slavery by pursuing his train of thought still farther. After 
enumerating a catalogue of evils which accompany it or 
proceed from it, such as " forbidding instruction, insults 
and oppressions from the whites, inadequate remuneration, 
intellectual ignorance, moral degradation," etc., he tells us 
" they may all exist without admitting that slavery is in it- 
self a crime." He tells us " it may exist without any of 
these concomitants." And then he asks, "if they are re- 
moved, how little will remain." But the difficulty is to re- 
move them, or to find slavery without them. There are 
many inherent and essential evils in the nature of slavery, 
in its mildest form, which as we shall see, and as the writer 
afterward in his definition of slaverj^ admits, cannot be sepa- 
rated from it, and which necessarily constitute it an evil of 
the greatest magnitude. His abstraction is entirely insuffi- 
cient to detach the things signified from the name which 
imports them. This is a natural and moral impossibility. A 
slaveholder is, by participation, an accessory agent in inflict- 
ing and continuing bondage upon slaves. He cannot be a 
slaveholder without this. The slaves must of course exist; 
they must exist in the state or condition, in some important 
particulars, common to slaves ; they arc certainly deprived 
of freedom ; they are under the authority of a master of un- 
defined character, liable to privations, toils, oppressions, suffer- 
ings, such as are common among slaves in all countries and 
in every condition, from some of which they cannot be 



92 



exempt while in slavery. The phases of oppression and suf- 
fering arising out of slavery may vary with the avarice, 
selfishness, and violence of the slaveholder; but whether 
violence and cruelty appear or not, the chief ingredient, the 
galling evil and guilty thing, slavery, still remains. 

As it seems to he the design of this writer to detach the 
fruits of slavery from the root of it, and refer the whole 
thing to some internal chamber or recess of the heart, feel- 
ing, or principle of the mind, where he would describe it 
as a little thing, both harmless and innocent, it seems ap- 
propriate to take the back view, and follow him in our ex- 
amination of this fabricated feature of slavery, which is 
generally considered and found to be so flagrant and tangi- 
ble a thing. And as he speaks of slavery as " a great moral 
question, which is to be settled by the word of God," let 
us test his abstraction by that standard. 

The best view of abstraction on divine record is well ex- 
pressed in the Assembly's Shorter Catechism: The sinful- 
ness of man's estate consists in the corruption of his nature," 
{in itself considered) "together with all actual transgressions 
which accompany or flow from it." The heart and life are 
inseparably connected. There is no room here for abstrac- 
tion, nor in the Bible at all. The depraved principle within 
and the corrupt results without are in perfect contact. The 
fountain and the streams certaiuly and uniformly issuing 
from it are viewed as a unit ; they are identified and amal- 
gamated, for an evil tree icill bring forth evil fruit. Because 
out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, thefts, adulteries, 
murders, etc. Matt. xv. 19. To make this point still more 
plain, w^e shall adduce a few passages for illustration. The 
first is found in Rom. viii. 7 — " The carnal mind is enmity 
against God." This is as abstract a statement of human de- 
pravity as could be framed, audyet the corrupt principle is 
not detached or separated at all from its evil results, nor 
the contrary-. Its exercises, its fruits and consequences, 
stand so closely connected with its internal elements, and 
proceed so immediately out of them, that there is no tan- 
gible point or line of separation between them. Hence the 
words closely follow "it," that is, "the carnal mind is not 



93 



subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." There 
is inherently associated and combined with the internal 
abstract element of enmity to God a feeling or propensity, 
an effort, a struggle, a manifestation in the divine sight, of 
resistance to divine authority, of rebellion against God. 
However calm and pure the internal state may appear, how- 
ever smooth the outward surface may seem, there is be- 
neath it, concealed by a very slight covering, not only de- 
fection from God, but rebellion against him, the first overt 
act or outbreak of iniquity, the commencement of a train 
of evils which nothing but Almighty power can check. 
Hence it is immediately added, that this insubordinate re- 
bellious emotion is beyond the control of the creature ; " it 
is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be ;" 
it cannot be reduced to subjection or kept in order by hu- 
man power. This is the only kind of abstraction to be found 
in the word of God. In the same manner, slaveholding, in 
the most abstract form in which we can conceive of it, em- 
bodies in itself the elements, the features, the train, the 
mischiefs, and the guilt, which properly belong to the sys- 
tem, in all its ordinary phases and successive stages of sin 
and guilt. The liberty of its victim has been stolen away 
already, and then all conceivable mischiefs follow naturally 
and certainly. 

A passage leading to the same result may be found in 
the first epistle of James i. 15 : ''Lust, when it hath con- 
ceived, bringeth forth sin." Lust is the abstract principle 
in which all the iniquities and crimes of men originate, 
and none of them can be more directly and positively 
traced to that source than slaveholding. It springs from the 
lust of money, the lust of power, of ease, of indolence, o 
pride, of pleasure, of splendor, of luxury. It proposes ab 
initio^ and sets out, contrives, labors, resolves, when if ever 
abstract in the breast, to build up, and if possible, to tri- 
umph in the kind of life indicated above, without industry, 
talent, enterprise, or care, on the ruins of humanity — re- 
gardless of the pains, toils, and sorrows that they may cre- 
ate for the slaves. Hence, the Apostle adds, " lust, when it 
hath conceived, bringeth forth sin." And there is no rea- 

I 



94 



son to be surprised at what follows: "Sin, when it is 
finished, bringeth forth death;" and this is the continuous 
train and sure result of slavery in ten thousand compli- 
cated and aggravated forms. 

Another utterance of an apostle, perfectly appropriate 
and conclusive in this matter, we should do injustice to the 
subject by failing to recite : "If the righteous are scarcely 
saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? 1 
Peter iv. 18. Both the characters under consideration, the 
abstract sinner and the open practical ^a^i7foz^5 transgressor^ 
very common characters, are here brought close together, 
and God's feelings towards them, respectively, are clearly 
manifested ; and the exhibition affords decisive evidence 
that he regards both alike. Ungodly is translated from the 
Greek word asebces. This is derived from a, 7icn, not, sebo, 
colo, worship. Here the element of impiety is traced back, 
as far as possible, to abstraction in the heart. The cor- 
ruption and guilt of the ungodly man are described nega- 
tively. He is ungodly, not reconciled to God, no worshijD- 
per, has neither fear nor reverence for the divine majesty, 
pays him no homage ; cherishes a silent, secret, sullen, ob- 
stinacy in his indifference and neglect. The term sinner 
comes from the Greek word arnartolos, which imports a 
practical, bold, rash, mature transgressor, one far advanced 
in the artifices, habits, and fearless outbreaks of iniquity. 
In him the element of sin or depravity has burst over all 
bounds of timidity and discretion, so that he sits in the 
seat of the scornful, becomes a pattern and leader in ini- 
quity. The Apostle's eloquent appeal, " where shall the U7i- 
godly and the sinner appear," makes no distinction between 
these characters. The comparative decency and good order 
of the one, gives him no shelter, and the audacious wicked- 
ness of the other, secures to him no pre-eminence in con- 
demnation : they are both driven away, under every token 
of wrath, from the presence of the Lord and the glory of 
his power. Hence we must be permitted to repudiate en- 
tirely the wretched business of slaveholding, in every as- 
pect or grade of it, and to pronounce every efibrt at ab- 
straction utterly futile and unavailing. The internal princi- 



95 



pie of corruption is always bent towards evil; though, 
covered and partially out of sight, it suffers no repose ; and 
although restraints may prevent its immediate and un- 
bridled action and the full disclosure of its worst features^ 
in some instances confine and repress its aspirations and 
struggles Tv^ithin the breast, yet they cannot form for it com- 
plete concealment or satisfactoiy apology. Indeed depraved 
and lurking passions, pent up in the mind like damaged 
goods " unopened to the air," become more corrupt, mould 
and send forth a stench and infection noxious as moral 
death, and ultimately exhibit a more aggravated wicked- 
ness and "blacker guilt than active life ever presents to 
view. So the passion for slaveholding, when it has not 
found means or space to walk abroad in all its living and 
glaring habiliments of deformity, is like an insidious lion 
in pursuit of prey, crouching for concealment behind some 
hedge or hillock, that he may with more certainty make 
his desperate leap upon his innocent and unsuspecting vic- 
tim. 



CHAPTEE XIY. 

An examination of the Princeton writer's definition of slavery — its three compre- 
hensive feateres — import of the first — natural rights, etc. — Opinions of others 
stated. 

He tells us that " all the ideas which necessarily enter 
into the definition of slavery are, deprivation of personal 
lihertij, obligation of service at the discretion of another^ and the 
irans-^erable character of the authority and claim of service of 
themaster.'' — p. 291. As this must be viewed as a summary 
surrender of the whole argument and subject, we are 
pleased to find a substantial repetition of this definition on 
page 299 : " We have already remarked, that slavery, in it- 
self considered^ is a state of bondage^ and nothing more. It is 



96 



the condition of an individual who is deprived of his per- 
sonal liberty, and is obliged to labor for another, who has 
the right of transfer of the claim of service at pleasure." 
The intelligent reader will of course perceive that this 
grant covers three important points — liherty despoiled, labor 
enforced, and sale or transfer of jperson and service at perfect 
cajmce. Here the worst forms of chattelism, according to 
the writer's views, are fully exhibited. Although his ad- 
mission does not show fully the practical deformit}^ and 
odiousness of this vicious system in general, it presents 
three of its most decisive and repulsive features, which de- 
serve some careful examination. 
And I. Privation of jpersoiial liherty. 

Liberty designates the natural and divinely constituted 
condition of all human creatures. And heretofore it has 
been common, when we wished to picture a man as in the 
most exalted and eligible state, to say he is free; therefore 
he is independent, and hence he is happy; but in describ- 
ing and vindicating the slave system, this writer presents 
the loss of personal liberty as the slave's peculiar trait or 
characteristic. He could not do otherwise. Slavery is an 
essential feature of the system and the prolific parent of all 
its thousands of mischiefs. The apostle to the Hebrews 
testifies, that God made man a little lower than the an- 
gels, crowned him with glory and honor," and as the high- 
est mark of his dignity, " set him over the works of his 
hands." But how fallen ! Deprive men of their liberty, 
their distinguishing and crowning glory, and you degrade 
them at once to a level with the brutes. His liberty once 
snatched away, all else that was noble and endearing suf- 
fers an eclipse — makes its escape. In common with all 
others of the human race, the negro derived his dignity 
and happiness from the possession and consciousness of 
freedom. This secured to colored men, as well as others, 
the privilege of improving their faculties, the supremacy 
and independence of reason and conscience. Their influ- 
ence in society, their enterprise and success in every voca- 
tion, their hopes and happiness, are derived from and 
based upon their liberty. In this pre-eminently, as con- 



'97 



nected with reason and kindred faculties, consists man's 
resemblance to Ms maker. Here centers the full power of 
the creator's right to man and to his homage. In its go- 
verning influence, liberty reaches both his bodily and his 
mental powers to improve and elevate. Upon the sacred 
basis of man's freedom of choice and action stands his ac- 
countableness and obligation to God. Indeed liberty seems 
to constitute the lohole of man. The depression of African 
intellect in a state of bondage was noticed by Homer in 
the following couplet : 

For half his senses Jove conveys away 
Whom once he dooms to see the servile day." 

Slavery is made light of by some, as the loss of liberty 
appears, at first view, to possess only a negative infiuence, 
but when more closely examined, it is seen to operate with 
a positive crushing power. Usurpation, infliction, oppres- 
sion, and multifarious sufferings necessarily compose its 
essence. And while slavery rudely and violently assails 
man, and strips him of all that he holds most dear, it di- 
rectly and offensively invades the most high and sacred 
province of God's rights and authority over his human off- 
spring. It rudely enters, as a disturbing element, into his 
well ordered and peaceful kingdom, with all its deranging 
influences, physical and moral, political and social. And 
the sum of its aggressions consists of an arbitrary seizure 
founded on an unrighteous and unprovoked usurpation, 
placing an iron framework around the souls and bodies of 
all its miserable subjects, debarring them from the attain- 
ment of all proper earthly benefits, converting them into 
machines of selfish aggrandisement, and practically deny- 
ing to them the privilege of free access to God through the 
appointed channels of heavenly mercy ; and so, in effect, 
cutting them off from the enjoyments of this life and from 
the hope of heaven. 

To favor the pro-slavery theory, the Kepertory gives us 
some quite novel ideas respecting the rights of men, in 
which we think he has adopted a very erroneous view of 
ikQ subject. He asserts "that the condition of slavery," 

I* 



98 



■svhicli lie delineates, (p. 299) " involves the loss of many 
of the rights which are commonly called natural, because 
belonging to men as men." This he need not to have as- 
serted, as it is obvious that slavery, within its grasp, leaves 
no right to man. He then intimates that he thinks it "not 
criminal, under all circumstances, to deprive any set of men 
of a portion of their natural rights.'' This is a delusive in- 
sinuation, intended evidently to sustain his favorite policy 
of slavemaking and slaveholding, both of which he advo- 
cates, and which, indeed, leave their victims no rights, no- 
thing but mere nominal existence, and that in a debased, 
servile, and forlorn condition. 

Our author seems very prolific in sentiments dangerous 
to human freedom. Of this character is the declaration, 
"that the right of personal liberty is conditioned by the 
ability to exercise beneficially that right." This opinion 
strips the weaker portion of men, the ordinary classes of 
society, of their just claim to freedom, and invests the 
stronger party with all right to tyrannize when they pos- 
sess the power ; that is, as we have said before, " it makes 
right consist in wight,'" which is a perfect inversion and 
prostration of all sound principle in both philosophy and 
politics. This sentiment has been the primum mobile and 
triumphant incentive to all the bloody, despotic, and revo- 
lutionary violence by which the earth has ever been laid 
waste. The writer, in his progress laying aside all reserve, 
gives us the broad sweeping declaration, that " the very consti- 
tution of society supposes the forfeiture of a greater or less amount 
of these rights, according to its pecidiar organization." His ob- 
ject, in this, is to create a belief that these natural rights 
of men have nothing in them equitable, stable, or essential, 
to fritter them away to nothing, as fictitious perishable 
things which may be set aside or abolished at pleasure. If 
this were true, or admitted in argument, the first feature in 
his definition, deprivation of liberty, would be in some mea- 
sure justified; the spoliation and subjugation of men, by 
deprivation and bondage, sale or barter, would, indeed, seem 
to be divested in great degree of their odiousness and guilt. 
But the truth is, there is nothing in the moral world, in 



99 



mind, or in man by nature, more fixed, immutable, and 
sacred than these very rights. They constitute the man, as 
distinguished from the brute. It is the prime object of law 
to protect these rights from the commencement of society, 
and even in a state of nature they are to be held inviolate. 
They can be got clear of in only three ways — by violence^ 
by crime which creates forfeiture, or by conventional agree- 
ment. The first is the pro-slavery man's preference, the last 
the creed of the enlightened politician and moralist. The 
suggestion of the Princeton writer is quite novel and pecu- 
liar, probably, to some new school — " the formation of so- 
ciety supposes the forfeiture of a greater or less amount of 
these rights." This is entirely contrary to fact. 

Does this writer mean to assert that organized society is 
at first a constrained or coerced institution ? that govern- 
ment is originally composed of convicts and co7iscripts, driven 
or forced together as a punishment for crime or an escape 
from prison? The affirmative of these questions seems 
clearly implied in the term forfeiture. Here we must ask 
again, as by the supposition there exists no government 
before one is formed, no umpire in a state of nature, no 
tribunal or judge, no method of testing public sentiment 
or graduating private character, no authority at all before 
society is constituted, to whom is this forfeiture made? 
"Who have examined into the character and evidence of the 
crime alleged ? By what standard or law was the investi- 
gation conducted, the forfeiture graduated, and the sen- 
tence pronounced ? It is evident that the idea of forfeiture, 
as here applied, is founded in an entire misconception of 
the whole subject. If the writer had consulted Montes- 
quieu, Yattel, or Ferguson, he might have learned that the 
first formation of society or government, in the ordinary 
course of human things, is a perfectly free and voluntary 
process. "When men in a state of nature find difficulties 
occurring in their necessary business and intercourse, in 
the exercise of their mutual natural rights and obligations 
in regard to person and property, feel the want of a rule, a 
restraining and governing power, they come together in a 
sovereign, free, and independent manner, and ascertain, 



100 



define, and establish, not bj forfeiture or as a penalty for 
crime, but by voluntary agreement, certain principles, 
modes, and forms, which they generally call a constitution^ 
article^ or comjmct, for their future direction and govern- 
ment. In this voluntary arrangement, they mutually and 
reciprocally agree and engage to and with each other to 
surrender, give up, and commit to the newly framed or- 
ganization at discretion, in common with others, a certain 
defined portion of their natural rights, to obtain, by charter 
or constitution, a more definite and complete security for 
their remaining or reserved rights. Government is there- 
fore, in fact, manifestly and necessarily a free, independent, 
and voluntary compromise. But surely, in these proceed- 
ings, there is no crime, no guilt, no forfeiture or penal in- 
fliction, but everything of a contrary character — perfect 
freedom, sovereignty, and independence. 

That the intelligent and voluntary consent of the people 
forms the only legitimate foundation for government and 
society where there is no violence or anarch}^, is a truth so 
fully understood and established, that no argument is 
needed now to prove it. It has been recognised under all 
forms of free government, among tribes comparatively 
rude, as well as by those more civilized. That the voice of 
the popular majority should prevail, is a principle long 
since introduced and observed. But this was the result of 
a conventional agreement or the consent of the people 
freely expressed. These facts are fully illustrated in the 
early as well as later transactions of many of the Grecian 
states. Their Archons, their various civil magistrates, both 
in Greece and Eome, were elected, and their political pow- 
ers and forms defined and established, by the free and 
sovereign act of the people. In these measures there was 

forfeiture, no crime, no compulsion, no violation or pros- 
tration of natural rights and privileges. All civilized go- 
vernment and society are, therefore, a conventional agree- 
ment or contract between the compact formed and the 
people collectively and individuall}^ freely framing it, not 
under coerced and compulsory restriction and privation or 
power, but in the exercise of voluntary choice and perfect 
liberty. 



101 



The following opinions of some of the great masters of 
thought and language, expositors of right and independ- 
ence in our own as well as in other countries, are particu- 
larly w^orthj of attention. 

Blackstone says — " The primary aim of society is to pro- 
tect individuals in the enjoyment of those absolute rights 
which w^ere vested in them hy the immutable laws of na- 
ture. Hence it follows that the first and primary end of 
human laws is to maintain those absolute rights of indivi- 
duals." 

Fortescue says — " Those rights which God and nature 
have established, and which are therefore called natural 
rights, such as life and liberty^ need not the aid of human 
laws to be more efiectually invested in every man than 
they are. Neither do they receive any additional strength 
when declared by the municipal laws to be inviolable ; on 
the contrary, no human poiver has any authority to abridge or 
destroy them, unless the owner himself shall commit some 
act that amounts to a forfeiture." 

Again, he adds — " The law, therefore, which supports 
slavery and opposes liberty must necessarily be condemned 
as cruel, for every feeling of human nature advocates liber- 
ty. Slavery is introduced by human wickedness, but God advo- 
cates liberty by the nature which he has given to man.'' 

Beattie, of Scotland, says — " Slavery is inconsistent with 
the dearest and most essential rights of man's nature ; it is 
detrimental to virtue and industry ; it hardens the heart to 
those tender sympathies which form the most lovely part 
of the human character ; it involves the innocent in hope- 
less misery, in order to procure wealth and pleasure for the 
authors of that misery ; it seeks to degrade into brutes be- 
ings whom the Lord of heaven and earth endowed with 
rational souls and created for immortality. In short, it is 
utterly repugnant to every principle of reason, religion, 
humanity, and conscience." 

Grotius declares — " Those men are stealers who abduct, 
keep, sell, or buy slaves or freemen. To steal a man is 
the highest kind of theft." 

The great Reformer teaches that "unjust violence is by 



no means the ordinance of God, and therefore can bind no 
one in conscience and right to obey, whether the command 
comes from pope, emperor, king, or master." 

The voice of Patrick Henry : " Is it not a little surpris- 
ing that the professors of Christianity, whose chief excel- 
lence consists in softening the human heart, in cherishing 
and improving its finer feelings, should encourage a prac- 
tice so totally repugnant to the first impressions of right 
and wrong ? What adds to the wonder is, that this abomi- 
nable practice has been introduced in the most enlightened 
ages : times that seem to have pretensions to boast of high 
improvements in the arts and sciences and refined morality 
have brought into general use, and guarded by many laws, 
a species of violence and tyranny which our rude and bar- 
barous, but more honest ancestors detested. Is it not 
amazing that at a time when the rights of humanity are 
defined and understood with precision in a country above 
all others fond of liberty, that in such an age and in such 
a country we find men professing a religion the most mild, 
humane, gentle, and generous, adopting such a principle 
as is repugnant to humanity as it is inconsistent with the 
Bible and destructive to liberty ? Every thinking honest 
man rejects it^ ^ ^ ^ 

If these views of the writer's first feature of slavery, i. e, 
privation of liheiHy, be correct, every candid reader must see 
and admit that it is a great sin against God and man. 



CHAPTER XV. 

The second feature of his definition considered— " the slave's obligation of ser- 
vice at the discretion of another," etc. 

On this point, we shall differ toto ccelo from the writer, 
where he says, that " slavery is a state of bondage, and no- 
thing more, A life of uncomjpensated toil he makes an insig- 



103 



nificant trifle. We think it is a monstrous item in the list 
of evils. He has himself admitted that it is a great sin. 

This second feaiu7'e, when fairly viewed, exhibits quite 
as decided injustice and wrong inflicted upon the slave as 
can be found anywhere else. It consists in the slave's 
"obligation of service at the discretion of another." It is 
afterwards described in terms somewhat diff'erent — "being 
obliged to labor for another." The idea that the slave, after 
being violently robbed of his liberty, is obligated to labor 
J or another^ at his discretion, is an entire fiction, an assump- 
tion. The terms imply the absence of all equitable com- 
pensation ; and what obligation is any slave under to labor 
in this manner ? 

Several of the leading philosophical or political princi- 
ples which should govern the enterprise of this world are 
laid down in the Gospel. "If a man w^ould not work, 
neither should he eat." This is intended to teach that in- 
dustry in some useful occupation is a law of God. In view 
of this, the Jews have a proverb, " that every man who 
brings up a child without the knowledge of some useful 
art or occupation makes him, necessarily, a thief or a rob- 
ber." Diligence and activity are designed by God to form 
a governing rule for human life for individual benefit. An- 
other point, in immediate connection, is as clearly settled 
in the divine statute book — " the laborer is worthy of his 
hire." Slavery is violently hostile to both. These pre- 
cepts are maxims of law and political economy established 
in the code of Christ's kingdom. 

The condition of the human family, in its origin and 
following stages, exhibits various talents, powers, and ca- 
pacities in difierent degrees of maturity and productive- 
32ess — all, when in appropriate action, conducive to indivi- 
dual and general benefit. These talents, of every species, 
are entitled to a just j9ro rata share of the aggregate amount 
of production. The population of the world forms a large 
and growing business compang always open. Their stock, 
or capital, consists of land, lumber, water, mines, precious 
metals, quarries, goods and chattels, mental skill, mechani- 
cal knowledge, bodily powers, etc. These last may be con- 



104 



sidered as connected more particularly with the general 
head of labor. The gospel rule is, that the " lahorer is wor- 
thy of his hire :" labor is justly entitled to equitable com- 
pensation. The same divine authority which ordained the 
law, demands its fulfilment ; it pronounces a default here 
a crime and offence, " Behold the hire of the laborers who 
have reaped down your fields, which is by you kept back 
by fraud^ crieih : and the cries of them which have reaped 
are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth." James 
V. 4 — " behold the judge standeth before the door," verse 9. 
This organic law of God's kingdom, in the beginning, was 
given to men as a rule of action. The Creator had pre- 
viously granted the earth to man, as a wild, rude, and in- 
definite field of industry, accompanying the gift with an 
injunction to occupy it, subdue it, make it fruitful and or- 
namental, subservient to their comfort and to his glory. 
In connection with the motives and ends presented, God 
loaned to men the organs and facilities necessary to execute 
the boundless enterprise. Labor here becomes a very dis- 
tinguished and important endowment or possession, an in- 
tegral part in the great capital created, the stock invested, 
and the power to be employed. It is more especially the 
capital of the poor. It is in reality more productive and 
more honorable than any other branch of human capital. 
Its efiiciency depends very much upon the cultivation of 
the mind and combination of its improvements with mus- 
cular and bodily power. But, in its simplest and rudest 
form, it is the bone and sinew of life, the great prolific 
producer, the instrument of both susteutation and emolu- 
ment. Hence the great Creator, owner, and lawgiver, has 
provided, in a positive and special manner, for the laboring 
man ; and a neglect of the laborer's claims is a violation of 
the whole admirably adjusted system of God — a fixct which 
the Princeton writer seems to know very well. " If aoy 
set of men have servants, bond or free, to whom they refuse 
a proper compensation for their labor, they violate a moral 
duty and an express command of Scripture." — p. 303. This 
passage, alone, is suflicient to show that slavery is a sin 
against both God and man, in the very face of the writer 
and of his frequent assertions to the contrary. 



105 



These remarks bring the fundamental and essential as- 
pects of slavery fully into view. 'No truth is more fully proved 
by indisputable facts and long continued observation, than 
that slaveholders themselves, in their persons and families, 
repudiate labor. They eat and live, but do not work. They 
pronounce labor, of any and every kind, ii6t only burden- 
some and disgusting to themselves individually, as a supe- 
rior privileged class or order, but vulgar in itself, disgrace- 
ful to free white men, and inconsistent with refined society, 
not entitled to any return or compensation, but mere life. 
Hence they roll over upon their slaves all the drudgery, the 
hard labor, the low servility, which they may think neces- 
sary. The free men located between the slave plantations 
are frowned upon, crushed into insignificance, and some- 
times driven from their homes, because they neither ap- 
prove of slavery, nor participate in it, but would rather 
obey the laws of God, and labor for themselves. The slave 
power and domination have created a tyrannical and op- 
pressive public sentiment, hostile to free labor and free men. 
Thus the most laborious and exhausting service of the 
southern country has been performed through the last cen- 
tury by the slaves. These degraded and down-trodden sub- 
jects of arbitrary power have created for their owners, by 
the sweat of their brow, and millions by the sacrifice of 
their lives, princely fortunes, large annual incomes, the 
means of immense prodigality. Their only share in this 
vast production of their toil is the minimum allowance to 
sustain life and prolong their season of labor, which is for 
the most part a miserable existence. 

But we have no desire to particularize any farther than 
to make this subject fully apparent. Here, then, has been 
applied an amazing, an utterly incalculable amount of slave 
labor, entirely unprofitable to the working man. The writer, 
in his definition, calls it " service at the discretion of 
another." Again he admits the slaves work, "being ob- 
liged to labor for another." It is, then, coerced compulsory 
labor; there is nothing free or voluntary in it; it is, 
through its whole progress, the result of force. The slaves 
were brought into this manacled condition, as will be seen 

K 



106 



by tracing the process to its origin, by robbery or stealth- 
ful and piratical rapacity ; they are held and ground down, 
from age to age, in this state of compulsory toil, by arbi- 
trary power against right. And they have not only lost 
their freedom, but the wages due to them. The just earn- 
ings of their toil have never been recognised, much less 
compensated. And after a full survey of all these undis- 
puted facts, this writer repeatedly asserts that slavery is no 
no crime, no sin I And yet he tells ns, in another place, that 
withholding compensation is a corrupt and criminal thing 
— thus condemning this very feature of his definition of 
slavery in strong terms. l!^ow, from actual inquiry and in- 
vestigation, the last cen&us reports nearly three hundred and 
fifty thousand slaveholders of this character in the United 
States, besides an almost countless number of a smaller 
grade, and, notwithstanding, our Princeton writer repeats 
and repeats — there is no sin, no malum in slavery ! 

'^o matter how these nominal owners obtained their al- 
leged light to these slaves or working men, they are enor- 
mous debtors to them for their service by the laws of God. 
These wages are withheld by fraud. The owners may take 
refuge and seek excuse under civil law, the right of pur- 
chase, or of inheritance. But these are fabricated, forged, 
and futile grounds on which to base such a claim, when God 
interposes in behalf of the laborers, and announces his 
sacred right. All secondary and minor devices, bargains, 
or contracts, decisions and enactments, on earth are at once 
vitiated and rendered void in the high chancery of Heaven. 
"What are civil or political states, speculators, politicians, 
slaveowners, but parties, in this relation, to piracy ? They 
are less than figures on a chess-board, set up to play their 
transient game, playthings of an hour, in the hands of God, 
Can they, in all their protracted machinations and com- 
bined force, shake the stability of God's law ? Whatever 
spoliations, defaults, or frauds they may commit against 
God, there is no variation nor shadow of turning U'ith him. 

The Princeton writer, with great apparent solemnity, 
asks lohat is right? He invites us from earth's fiillible court- 
rooms to the bar of Heaven. — p. 287. We accept his appeal. 



lOT 



He says — " we recognise no authoritative rule of truth and 
duty but the word of God." But it seems that he is un- 
willing to obey that word of God when he finds it, although 
he admits its authority. In the account of God, from his 
own record, it appears that the immense unliquidated 
wages due for slave labor of past ages " kejpt hack hy fraud 
note crieih^ and the cries of them that reaped have entered 
into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth." Here every honest 
and candid inquirer cannot fail to find crime against man and 
sin against God. It seems worse than trifling for any man, in 
view of these things, obstinately to persist in crying no sin, 
no crime, no malum in se ! 

But the writer before us cannot be permitted to say that 
slavery, which according to him existed in its widest ex- 
tent 2^-u.diWorst forms through the Eoman empire, was passed 
by almost unnoticed by Christ and his apostles. The epistles 
of all the apostles bear very nearly the same date. And a 
heavier denunciation than this, of the apostle James, ad- 
dressed to Christians and others scattered abroad through 
the empire, could not have been couched in human lan- 
guage. Had Paul and Peter, James and John, thundered to 
the utmost against the corruption and guilt of slavery in 
general, their peals would have fallen unheeded to the 
ground ; but when one of them anathematized the fraud 
and guilt of slaveholders, for keeping hack the luages due to 
their slaves, it could not fail to produce a deep sensation ; 
because it touched the interests, the most sensitive points of 
most slaveholders, and at the same time manifests God's 
awful displeasure towards all defaulters for the violation of 
his sacred laws and resistance of his claims, their indiflTer- 
ence and injustice to oppressed and injured slaves. 



108 



CHAPTEK XYI. 

The ihird feature of the Repertory's definition of slavery considerd — the trans- 
ferable character of the master's claim, etc. — its tendency to encourage the 
slave trade. 

The third feature consists in the " transferable character of 
the authority and claim of service of the master.'" 

To transfer may be regarded as a business or legal term, 
and means to sell, set over, convey, by contract, bill, or as- 
signment, any article or thing that is disposable. Anything 
that exists and possesses adaptation to or connection with 
human interests and comfort, so as to present the idea of 
worth or utility in any way, is property in law, in fact, in 
common sense and usage. In this writer's schedule of rights 
in the slave system, he here in the third feature enumer- 
ates specifically two items: 1, authority ; 2, claim of service 
— and these he makes articles of merchandise. 

1. By authority, must be understood right to own, to 
possess, and to control. However this right is obtained, it is 
a very important item in the slaveholding business. As the 
slaves are not unfrequently indolent, idle, refractory, and 
even vicious, requiring, as the writer's language implies, 
^'to be obliged to labor for another," compelled "to work 
at the discretion of another," this authority is exercised 
forcibly, without consulting the will or pleasure of the 
slaves, at the mere arbitrary suggestion or impulse of the 
owner. 

2, The second item in the catalogue of chattelism is, 
the claim of service of the master," with the right of 

transfer or sale. Here appears to be another attempt at ab- 
straction. The whole of slavery is represented as a claim. 
The repulsive life, condition, and toil of the slaves are as 
gently passed over as possible — left as far as can be out of 
view. It is only the " claim of service of the master'' that con- 
stitutes slavery. But what is service worth that is not per- 
formed ? "What is a claim worth, if it cannot be realized ? 
What is power or alleged right, if it cannot be enforced ? 



109 



These slaves who are to be ordered and driven ahout like 
mules and cattle, compelled by authority to work" at the 
discretion of the master, by any means he may choose to 
employ, have bodies that must be produced, arms, legs, 
muscles, sinews, and, perhaps, some old fashioned reason, 
that must be brought into subjection. The writer attempts, 
in one place, to make the appearance of intelligence in 
slaves a reason why they must not be considered property. 
There is something humane in that. But he maintains, in 
opposition to this, that slaves are saleable, subject to attach- 
ment or seizure for debt, and disposable by vMl as any other 
pi^operty, besides being compelled to work. The truth is, 
in the slave market and on the plantation, the greater the 
degree of intelligence manifested by the slave, the greater 
is his estimated value and the higher his price. 

The writer proceeds to inform us that this claim of ser- 
vice ; this right of possession and use ; this authority and 
transfer; this liability for debt," etc., are merely technicali- 
ties designed to facilitate certain legal forms. They are of 
course only abstract ideas, not tangible and valid, but mere 
superficialities, conveniences to carry on the business pro- 
cesses and contingencies of the slaveholding business, at 
the option of the owner, and under his authority. But 
surely it is vain to argue against a notorious fact, known to 
all men, that slaves are bona fide property. They constitute, 
by way of pre-eminence, the special, the almost exclusive 
property of the slave states. They are worth more, in 
many instances, than the soil they occupy. The great plan- 
tations of the southern states are frequently valued by the 
number of slaves, of colored faces of work-hands upon 
them. They are lawful and visible signs of property, con- 
vertible at pleasure almost as soon as bank bills, when the 
price is fair ; and while cotton and southern produce in 
general continued high in the market, they were proclaimed 
as the greatest producers, the best stock in the country. 
The expansion of slave soil, or expectation of it, has pro- 
duced an augmentation in their value from fifty to one 
hundred, per centum. The writer's definition, if admitted, 
would be used as a screen for the slave trade, through all its 



110 



bloody career. The features this writer assigns as the 
privileged and justifying basis of the slaveholding process, 
and which he pronounces little or nothing, are sufficient to 
warrant the piratical slave traffic on the coast of Africa, in 
any slave field or slave market in the world. Any man 
may innocently become a pirate or slave trader, if the speci- 
fications or admissions contained in this definition are ad- 
mitted and acknowledged as harmless and innocent. Here 
is the definition — let us look at it again: ^^All the ideas 
which necessarily enter into the definition of slavery are^ dejmva- 
tion of personal liberty, obligation of service at the discretion 
of another^ and the transferable character of the authority 
and claim of service of the master." — p. 291. And, it is 
with this definition in full view, this writer exclaims re- 
peatedly — no 5m, no crime! 

A few remarks will show that this definition of slavery, 
or slaveholding, sanctions the essential features of the 
whole slave trade. 

The first necessary feature which he admits as natural, 
and essential to the type of slavery which he is here vindi- 
cating, consists in deprivation of personal liberty. The terms 
are general, and of course any means preferred may be em- 
ployed to secure the desired object — capture^ purchase, or 
barter. The next item in his system of slavery consists in 
obliging, which is compelling the slaves, so deprived of liber- 
ty or subjected to authority, to work at the discretion of an- 
other. And the third feature, which is the right of sale and 
of purchase, for if one may sell, another may buy, completes 
the deformity and heinousness of this cruel business. After 
reading these admissions and statements, scarcely any one 
would suppose that they are from the pen of the same 
writer, who in another part of his essay asks, after in im- 
agination trying to remove out of sight some of the com- 
mon abuses and cruelties of slavery, "how little remains?" 
"We think the framework of this colossal fabric of iniquity, 
here portrayed by himself, rises mountain high, stretching 
out before heaven and earth most ghastly features ! For 
nothing is more notorious than the fact, that slaves have 
always been obtained on the African coast, and other re- 
gions, in some one or all of the modes here intimated. 



Ill 



The first step of the slavers, in making up their cargoes 
on the coast, is to capture idlers and vagrants along the 
shore, or to seize them by violence ; to purchase them, 
nominally for a bauble, where they are held as prisoners of 
war ; to obtain them from their parents or pretended own- 
ers; to watch around the villages and dwellings nearest 
the sea, and catch the unsuspecting by stealth ; and, as a 
last and frequent resort, to invade the settlements and 
make captives promiscuously of all they meet, often setting 
their towns and houses on fire to frighten the natives and 
make them run out to escape the flames, and so, in their 
wild and rapid flight, become an easy prey to their pursu- 
ers. These inhuman manstealers, to deprive their wretched 
captives of their personal liberty, which the Eepertory of 
course considers a fair business, hurry them away to the 
slave ships in waiting for them, chain them down in their 
hulls, there to perish in the middle passage, or if they sur- 
vive the agonizing transportation trip, to be sold in the 
West Indies, in IlTorth or South America, or in any other 
open market in the world. The purchasers from the slaver 
may use these miserable victims, thus obtained, and compel 
them to labor till worn out and of little value, till an oppor- 
tunity occurs for obtaining a larger or the original price, 
when they are sold into another, perhaps a more miserable 
field of service, to linger out their wretched lives in another 
foreign clime. This definition, if carried out in its details, 
embraces all that is realized or implied in the slave trade, in 
slaveholding, or in slavery, as it is now generally existing or 
in practice in the world. Deprivation of liberty, compulsory 
labor, and sale at discretion — these are the three cardinal fea- 
tures of slavery in its vjorst forms. 

But, perhaps, we ought to strike out the last two in or- 
der, because the writer says they are nothing. On these 
points, his unfortunate collision with himself cannot escape 
the reader's observation. He says " slavery is a state of 
bondage, and nothing more." Then a life of uncompensated 
labor is nothing. But he has before said — " If any set of 
men have servants, bond or free, to whom they refuse a pro- 
per compensation for their labor, they violate a moral duty 



112 



and an express command of Scripture." — p. 281. But by 
this time sucli oflences, with which the slave countries are 
filled, have become nothing. On a former page he tells us, 
that the Gospel ^' condemns all infractions of marital and 
parental rights." — p. 300. But now the right claimed, and 
the practice kept up, of tearing families of slaves violently 
asunder, separating husbands and wives, parents and chil- 
dren, and selling them in any open market, this writer calls 
nothing ! 

This definition, fully authorizing the slave trade, brings 
its author into direct conflict, not only with the Bible, which 
forbids manstealing^ but with the declarations and decrees 
of the noblest nations upon earth, who pronounced the 
slave trade to be piracy^ and prohibited it solemnly, within 
their respective realms, under penalty of death. Such ap- 
pears to be the natural and just import of this writer's lan- 
guage. He pronounces the features which constitute the 
very essence of slaveholding and of piracy matters of very 
little moment — no sin, no crime I even when enslaving and 
destroying the human race in the full tide of power and 
success ; but France, Great Britain, and the United States, 
with other independent nations, have denounced the same 
as piracy worthy of death. 



CHAPTEE XYII. 

Extracts from the constitutions of South Carolina and Louisiana, and especially 
from the Presbyterian church records. — Dr. Breckenridge's remarks. — The 
testimony of former Assembhes stated and explained. — Views respectine-[the 
abolition system. 

The law of South Carolina defines slavery in the follow- 
in £: terms : 

" Slaves shall be deemed, sold, taken, and reputed and 
adjudged in law, to be chattels personal in the hands of their 
owners and possessors, and their executors, administrators, 



113 



and assigns, to all intents, constructions, and purposes what- 
ever.'' 

The law of Louisiana runs thus : 

" A slave is one who is in the power of his master, to 
whom he belongs. The master may sell him, dispose of his 
industry and his labor: he can do nothing, possess nothing, 
nor acquire anything but what must belong to his master." 

These extracts exhibit slavery as it exists in the statute 
books of two slave states, selected at random. A slight 
examination will show any one that the Princeton writer's 
definition of slavery corresponds substantially with the 
southern state records, as far as they go. 

The following extract from a speech of Eev. Dr. Robert 
J. Breckenridge, of Kentucky, will furnish a brief practical 
view of the system of slavery, as it generally appears and 
operates through the slave region. We admit that the 
evils here pointed out have been in some measure miti- 
gated in districts where moral and religious improvements 
have been permitted to enter and produce some partial 
effect. 

Dr. Breckenridge asks — "What then is slavery? for the 
question relates to the action of certain principles on it and 
to its probable and proper results : what is slavery as it ex- 
ists among us ?" We reply, it is that condition enforced by 
the laws of one half of the states of this confederacy, in 
which one portion of the community, called masters, is 
allowed such power over another portion, called slaves — 

" 1. To deprive them of the entire earnings of their own 
labor, except only so much as is necessary to continue labor 
itself by continuing healthful existence, thus committing 
clear robbery. 

" 2. To reduce them to the necessity of universal concu- 
binage, by denying to them the civil rights of marriage, thus 
breaking up the dearest relations of life and encouraging 
universal prostitution. 

" 3. To deprive them of the means and opportunities of 
intellectual and moral culture in many states, making it a 
high penal offence to teach them to read ; thus perpetuat- 
ing whatever of evil there is that proceeds from ignorance. 



114 



" 4. To set up between parents and their children an au- 
thority higher than the impulse of nature and the law of 
God, which breaks up the authority of the father over his 
own offspring, and, at pleasure, separates the mother to a 
returnless distance from her child: thus abrogating the 
clearest laws of nature ; thus outraging all decency and 
justice, and degrading and oppressing thousands upon 
thousands of human beings, created, like themselves, in 
the image of the most high God. This is slavery as it is 
daily exhibited in every slave state.'" 

This description of the practical nature and operation of 
slavery is from a distinguished son of Kentucky, a promi- 
nent slave field in time past. It furnishes an appropriate 
and powerful comment upon the Princeton definition, 
which itself, however, when traced to its elementary prin- 
ciples and results, will appear to be sufficiently shocking 
without comment. 

The Princeton essayist informs us, that many religious 
bodies have spoken upon this subject, and we may add, in 
language decidedly opposed to the views which he has pre- 
sented. Indeed it cannot be too much regretted that he 
did not examine and ponder seriously the declarations of 
some of them before he wrote, and particularly those of 
the Presbyterian church, which have been frequently pub- 
lished in the minutes of their General Assembly, from its 
first establishment, and in 1818, in their Digest, ''compiled 
from their records," to exhibit their true character and to 
exert a salutary influence among the members of this large 
and growing denomination of christians. This point de- 
rives great importance from the fact, that the Kepertory is 
extensively considered as the index of the theological and 
moral sentiments of the Presbyterian church in these 
United States. And it may be justly submitted, as an in- 
teresting question, how far the essay or review, here re- 
ferred to, correctly expresses the sentiments almost univer- 
sally prevalent through the Presbyterian body. 

As this volume, on its title page, indicates an intention 
in the publishers to send it abroad to a foreign market, it 
may be properly inquired, whether this article gives a just 



115 



and candid exhibition of the principles entertained by the 
Presbyterian church on the interesting subject of slavery. 
We are far from believing that it does. To enable its read- 
ers to decide this point, we shall assist the church to speak 
for herself, by inserting some extracts from her minutes. 

An opinion of the General Assembly, given in the way 
of business, A. J). 1818, is here presented, as a fair exhibi- 
tion of Presbyterian sentiment on this subject. 

" The committee to which was referred the resolution on 
the subject of selling a slave, a member of the church, etc. 

" The General Assembly of the Presbyterian church, hav- 
ing taken into consideration the subject of slavery, think 
proper to make known their sentiments upon it to the 
churches and people under their care. 

We consider the voluntary enslaving of one part of the 
human race by another as a gross violation of the most pre- 
cious and sacred rights of human nature, as utterly incon- 
sistent with the law of God, which requires us to love our 
neighbor as ourselves, and as totally irreconcilable with the 
sjnrit and principles of the Gospel of Christ, which enjoin 
that ' all things whatsoever ye would that men should do 
to you, do ye even so to them.' 

" Slavery creates a paradox in the moral system ; it ex- 
hibits rational, accountable, and immortal beings in such 
circumstances as scarcely to leave them the power of moral 
action. It exhibits them as dependent upon the will of 
others, whether they shall receive religious instruction ; 
whether they shall know and worship the true God; 
whether they shall enjoy the ordinances of the Gospel ; 
whether they shall perform the duties and cherish the en- 
dearments of husbands and wives, parents and children, 
neighbors and friends ; whether they shall preserve their 
chastity and purity, or regard the dictates of justice and 
humanity. Such are some of the consequences of slavery 
— consequences not imaginary, but which connect themselves 
with its very existence. The evils to which the slave is always 
exposed often take place in fact, and in their very worst de- 
gree and form ; and where all of them do not take place, 
as we rejoice to say, that in many instances, through the 



116 



influence of the principles of humanity and religion on the 
minds of masters, they do not, still the slave is deprived of 
his natural right, degraded as a human being, and exposed 
to the danger of passing into the hands of a master, who 
may inflict upon him all the hardships and injuries which 
inhumanity and avarice may suggest. 

" From this view of the consequences resulting from the 
practice into which christian people have most inconsist- 
ently fallen, of enslaving a portion of their brethren of 
mankind, for ' God hath made of one blood all nations of 
men to dwell on the face of the earth,' it is manifestly the 
duty of all christians who enjoy the light of the present 
day, when the inconsistency of slavery, both with the dictates 
of humanity and religion, has been demonstrated, and is gene- 
rally seen and acknowledged, to use their honest, earnest, 
and unwearied endeavors to correct the errors of former 
times, and as speedily as possible to efface this blot on our 
holy religion, and to obtain the complete abolition of slavery 
throughout Christendom, and if possible, throughout the 
world. 

"We rejoice that the church to which we belong com- 
menced, as early as any other in this country, the good 
work of endeavoring to put an end to slavery, and that in 
the same work many of its members have ever since been, 
and now are among the most active, vigorous, and efficient 
laborers. We do, indeed, tenderly sympathize vnth that por- 
tion of our church and our country where the evil of slavery has 
been entailed upon them; where a great and the most virtu- 
ous part of the community abhor slavery, and wish its ex- 
termination as sincerely as any others ; but where the num- 
ber of slaves, their ignorance, and their vicious habits 
generally render an immediate and universal emancipation 
inconsistent alike with the safety and happiness of the 
master and the slave. With those who are thus circum- 
stanced, we repeat that we tenderly sympathize. At the 
same time we earnestly exhort them to continue, and if 
possible to increase, their exertions to eflect a total aboli- 
tion of slavery. We exhort them to suffer no greater de- 
lay to take place in this most interesting concern than a 



117 



regard to the public welfare truly and indispensably de- 
mands. 

" As our country has inflicted a most grievous injury on 
the unhappy Africans, by bringing them into slavery, we 
cannot, indeed, urge that we should add a second injury to 
the first, by emancipating them in such manner as that 
they will be likely to destroy themselves or others. But 
we do think that our country ought to be governed in this 
matter by no other consideration than an honest and im- 
partial regard to the happiness of the injured party, unin- 
fluenced by the expense or inconvenience which such a 
regard may involve. We therefore ivarn all who belong to 
our denomination of christians against unduly extending this 
plea of necessity, against making it a cover for the love and 
practice of slavery, or a pretence for not using efi:brts that are 
lawful and practicable to extinguish the evil. 

" We recommend to all our people to patronise and en- 
courage the society lately formed for colonizing in Africa, 
the land of their ancestors, the free people of color in our 
country. We hope that much good may result from the 
plans and eflTorts of this society ; and while we exceedingly 
rejoice to have witnessed its origin and organization among 
the holders of slaves, as giving an unequivocal pledge of 
their desire to deliver themselves and their country from 
the calamity of slavery, we hope that those portions of the 
American union, whose inhabitants are by a gracious Pro- 
vidence more favorably circumstanced, will cordially and 
liberally and earnestly co-operate with their brethren in 
bringing about the great end contemplated." — Digest, p. 
339. 

In these plain and unequivocal declarations of the Gene- 
ral Assembly, it is perfectly manifest that they considered 
slavery a positive malum in se of the very worst character. 
Let the reader particularly observe the following words in 
the minutes of 1818 : " We consider the voluntary enslav- 
ing of one part of the human race by another, as a gross 
violation of the most precious and sacred rights of human 
nature, as utterly inconsistent with the law of God, and as to- 
tally irreconcilable with the spirit and principles of the Gos- 

L 



118 



pel of Christ,'' If these words do not most positively de- 
nounce slavery as a malum in se, a depraved, mischievous 
and guilty thing in its own nature, then words cannot be 
found in the English language so to denounce and con- 
demn it. But the Assembly's declaration goes on to de- 
signate and particularize a long catalogue of evils, oppres- 
sions, and sufferings unavoidably proceeding from slavery 
— consequences, they say, not imaginary, but which con- 
nect themselves ivith its very existence; and in the supposi- 
tion they make, "that cases may occur in which, through 
the influence of humanity and religion, all the evils they 
have recited do not take place, still the crime and guilt of 
slavery remain; still the slave is deprived of his natural right, 
degraded as a human being, exposed * * to all the 
hardships and injuries which inhumanity and avarice may 
suggest. Whatever superficial mitigations may appear, 
slavery still exists, God's law is violated, and the precious 
rights of man are outraged." 

Here it seems proper to attempt a correction of the Phi- 
ladelphia writer, where he appears to have put a wrong 
construction upon an important part of the Assembly's 
testimony in 1818, as transcribed above. This is the pas- 
sage : " We do indeed tenderly sympathize with those por- 
tions of our church and of our country where the edl of 
slavery has been entailed; where a great and the most vir- 
tuous part of the community ahhor slavery, and wish its ex- 
termination as sincerely as any others ; but where the num- 
ber of slaves, their ignorance, and their vicious habits 
generally, render an immediate and universal emancipation 
inconsistent alike with the safety and happiness of the mas- 
ter and slave. With those who are thus circumstanced, we 
repeat, that we tenderly sympathize." In regard to this 
passage, the writer referred to says : ''Here it will be seen 
the doctrine of our Assembly is, that circumstances control 
the continuance of slavery." Here the circumstances referred 
to are particularly stated : " the number of the slaves, their 
ignorance, and their vicious habits generally, making their 
immediate and universal emancipation inconsistent alike 
with the safety and happiness of the master and slave.'* 



119 



These are the real shocking and insurmountable circum- 
stances which then controlled the continuance of slavery^ and 
do so still in these United States, But instead of diminish- 
ing its guilt and enormity, they constituted then, and do 
now, the strongest features of its aggravation. But what, 
the writer adds, does not proceed from what the Assembly 
has said or derive any support from it. "This relation 
(slavery) is justifiable, or otherwise, according as the hap- 
piness of the master and slave and the public welfare are 
promoted by it." Here a new topic is introduced. The for- 
mer relates to the continuance of slavery, this to its justifica- 
tion — two objects as different as are light and darkness. 
Some circumstances, by a kind of compulsory violence, may 
control the continuance of slavery, but they do not detract 
from its criminality. This they increase rather than di- 
minish by its continuance ; its depravity and guilt remain 
the same, or rather are aggravated by the increasing igno- 
rance and vice of the slaves. The language of the Assem- 
bly is far from conveying the idea, that continuing an evil, 
mitigates or lessens its demerit. It is the very continuance 
entailed and forced upon them, in great measure, that ex- 
cites their symioathy. 

The Assembly sympathize with those who are thus com- 
pelled to suffer under this evil, because it is enormous, in- 
tolerable ; and hence they urge strongly the use of means 
and increased efforts for its speedy and entire removal from 
the earth. How would this most incongruous and unex- 
pected interpretation from Philadelphia correspond with 
the tremendously striking and impressive manifesto of the 
Assembly of 1818, in all the foregoing as well as succeed- 
ing parts of this noble and splendid report? Could that 
writer have read the report in general, or only certain por- 
tions of it ? He says it harmonizes with the declaration of 
1845. Here is his mistake. This last Assembly refused to 
go the full extent in honestly and faithfully condemning 
slavery. Their real meaning is not easily discovered from 
their terms. The Assembly" of 1845 say : " "We cannot de- 
nounce the holding of slaves as necessarily a heinous and 
scandalous sin." Many reasons may have prompted this 



120 



form of expression aside from sympathy for slavery. This 
is a kind of negative declaration, whicli some circumstances 
in the condition of the church, or in the business before 
them, may have inclined them to adopt. But this is cer- 
tain, referring back to the act of the Assembly of 1818, 
that "sympathy" for a company of transgressors, who are 
suffering under their crimes and guilt, does not imply any 
participation in either, or inclination to excuse or justify it. 

We cannot allow the sentiments of our Philadelphia 
friend, on slavery, the character he courts and claims for 
them — conservatism. If nothing in the opinions themselves 
created a difficulty, his own candid confessions or inadver- 
tent statements, on several points, have made this impossi- 
ble. He does not, as he seems to suppose, tally at all with 
the testimony of the Assembly of 1818, which has always 
been regarded as a correct exhibition of the testimonies of 
all successive assemblies in the Presbyterian church since 
1787, and is now considered our only orthodox standard on 
this subject. 

This writer tells us, in all good conscience and correct- 
ness, " that manstealing is a malum in se, which can be justi- 
fied by no circumstances whatever." He is certainly right 
here. He is equally right in another corresponding decla- 
ration, which follows : " Slaveholding originated by the 
wickedness of manstealiny and by a violation of the laws of 
God." The moral character, i. e, the turpitude and guilt 
of slavery, are precisely the same in nature now as at the 
beginning. It was manstealing^ he tells us, in its origin — it 
has been manstealing^ substantially, in all its successive 
stages and phases, in spite of human art ; and it will be 
manstealing till entirely extinguished in this world. 

Our Philadelphia friend maintains that " slaveholding is 
included among things which are indifferent in morals — it is 
a relation that may be justified by circumstances." These 
opinions, which differ a good deal in their nature, are so 
far from being conservative, they are truly heretical and 
dangerous. Assuming these tenets makes their author a 
pro-slavery man ; because, in following them out to their 
legitimate result, this is unavoidably their stopping place. 



121 



Having said something on the subject of circumstantial 
slavery before, we shall say little here. We ask those who 
favor this scheme to look at this point. It is necessarily 
assumed that every individual is to judge of these justify- 
ing circumstances for himself. They can easily be made 
numerous and various enough to sanction the whole sys- 
tem of slavery. Men, in general, have not virtue sufficient 
to resist the temptation here presented. Selfishness can in- 
duce any man of lax principles and feeble conscience or 
moral sense to believe and profess, or pretend anything. 
Interest, indolence, ease, pleasure, old family or personal 
sympathies and attachments, can create a thousand circum- 
stances and claims utterly irresistible in this relation. 

We could easily refer to many instances to confirm these 
statements — to some even in New Jersey, but we shall re- 
cite only a single case, which occurred much farther south, 
furnished by this writer himself, from his own knowledge 
and his own magazine, directly to the point and decisive in 
this case. — " A distinguished slaveholder of the south, who 
owns several hundred slaves, and who is not a communi- 
'cant in the church, after hearing an ultra pro-slavery ser- 
mon, came out of the house of God, expressing strong dis- 
approbation of such sentiments; and stamping his foot on 
the ground, declared that he could not endure them. He 
added, that his only justification before God and the world 
for holding slaves was in the necessity of the case." Thus, 
in various modes of operation, indifference, necessity^ con- 
venience, profit, circumstance, pretence, and pleas of a 
thousand varied and multiplied characters may be found, 
to any extent, to justify, not only the continuance of slave- 
ry, but in imagination, to remove its sinfulness and guilt. 
Hence slavery must be perpetuated while men are wicked 
and the world stands. To this miserable, deceptive, and 
-unavailing process our Philadelphia friend sets no limit, 
and his Princeton colleague, more erroneous than himself, 
gives all his sanction in the following astonishing words : 
"Nothing can be more distinct than the right to hold 
^slaves, in certain circumstances^ and the right to render slavery 
^erjpetvM.''' Of course, nothing could be more monstrous 

L* 



122 



and absurd than to say, that such opinions and speculations 
are conservative, l^othing would be more gratifying than 
to find our respected friends worthy of such a distinction. 

As the term malum in se is employed so frequently by 
pro-slavery writers, a few additional explanatory remarks 
may, perhaps, shed some light upon its true import. 

In its origin, this phrase probably had a reference to an 
ancient division of moral law into two classes, namely, 
moral-natural and moral-positive, to which philosophers early 
attached great importance. But this point, when properly 
considered, will furnish no aid to the advocates of slavery 
in sustaining their views. 

That class of the divine law which is distinguished as 
moral-natural, refers to those laws of God which are of such 
a nature, or cover such elementary subjective materials as, 
by their constitution and nature, proclaim the existence of 
a moral law binding upon the heart and conscience of 
men, without any express manifestation of the divine will 
respecting it. Thus it is indisputably the duty of intelli- 
gent rational creatures to venerate and love supreme excel- 
lence, to obey and honor God. Had the Supreme Being 
never legislated upon the subject of human obligation and 
allegiance to himself, the law of love — " Thou shalt love 
the Lord thy God," would have existed, by a necessity of 
its own nature, as arising out of the infinite perfection and 
excellence of God, as the Creator and moral governor of 
the universe. And, in the absence of a specific command 
to love and glorify God, where sufficient intelligence existed 
to discover this relation and duty, it would have been a 
malum in se, not so to love and serve God. And it could 
never be otherwise, without changing the nature of God 
and the nature and reason of things, between himself and 
his rational ofispring. 

The moral-positive laws of God derive their authority and 
force from the specific command of God and the manifes- 
tation of his will, without relying for their sanction and 
support upon the nature and reason of things, though they 
may receive increased light and energy from incidental in- 
fluences. The institution of the sabbath is of this class — 



123 



Remember tlie sabbath day to keep it holy." We believe, 
however, that there exist in nature, collateral reasons to 
assist in enforcing this law. So, also, the command or or- 
dinance of marriage ; although the constitution and order 
of nature favor this relation, yet it stands upon a positive 
command or appointment of God. 

The eventful and memorable edict, found in God's posi- 
tive prohibition given to the first parents of our race, as to 
eating the forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden, is a strik- 
ing exhibition of the moral-positive law of God. Kow any 
violation, of any law comprised under either of these classes, 
is an evil and guilty thing, a malum in se, because it is an 
act of resistance or rebellion against the majesty of Heaven 
and against the declared will and law of God. 

Transgressions, of God's moral-positive enactments, are 
often as evil in his sight, and hence bring down as heavy a 
weight of divine wrath and ruin upon their perpetrators, as 
any other offences. The fruits of the earth were made to 
grow for the sustentation and comfort of men. The eating 
of an apple, in itself, is a very simple and a very harmless 
thing ; yet Adam's eating that fruit brought sin and guilt, 
death and woe, into the world, and spread them over the 
whole human family. Why was this? Simply because 
God declared, in his sovereign majesty and holiness — "of 
the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat." 
In itself, Adam's eating the apple was not evil. The evil 
consisted in disobeying the moral-positive command of God, 
producing the tremendous consequences which followed. 

Slavery is of a mixed nature, and creates numerous vio- 
lations of both departments of God's law, that which is 
moral-natural and moral-jyosiiive. In its first act, it lays vio- 
lent hands upon the radical principles of liberty, equality, 
and independence among men, so indispensable to their 
happiness. In its first inception, it prompts and authorizes 
one part of the human race to usurp dominion and exer- 
cise tyrannical power over another, to the entire suppres- 
sion and extinguishment of all their natural rights. This is 
a direct and violent invasion of one of the most prominent, 
important, and most precious laws of God, for the protec- 



124 



tion, benefit, and happiness of man, founded in his nature 
and constitution. 

But in its disorganizing influence, it pervades and mars 
a great part of God's moral kingdom. Thus it rends asun- 
der the relations and ties existing between husband and 
wife, between parents and their children. It refuses hire to 
the laborers, it withholds light from those in darkness, and 
deliverance from those in moral death. Thus it paralyzes 
the influence of the Gospel over the servile mind, and pre- 
vents the fulfilment of God's design, by it, to enlighten, 
elevate, and bless them ; thus, in countless instances, it de- 
ranges and frustrates the order of God's moral empire and 
his system of grace, in a long series laying waste the 
precepts, ordinances, and prohibitions of the Most High ; 
thus, with a mathematical clearness and force, demonstrat- 
ing that slavery is an evil of the greatest magnitude, a ma- 
lum in se in the mildest case that can occur, the sinfulness 
and guilt of which cannot be annulled and set aside to suit 
the capricious circumstances, conveniences, interests, and 
pleasures or necessities of individuals or families. God 
does not sell himself, his laws and enactments, the stability, 
order, and peace of his kingdom, at so cheap a rate, or 
stoop so low to pander to human passion and selfishness. 

The following sentiment, pronounced by the writer in 
the Repertory, appears unfortunate, for several reasons. 
"If slaveholding is a crime, slaveholders must be excluded 
from the church." This is a sentiment directly contrary to 
the practice and precepts of our Lord and his apostles. 
The w^riter might certainly have known, that while public 
opinion on the subject of slavery and the connection of 
slaveholders with the church continues so unsettled as at 
present, not only in the southern, but middle latitudes, any 
attempt to establish such an opinion or rule as he suggests, 
or system of church policy conformed to it, could not fail 
to produce almost universal dissatisfaction and painful agi- 
tation, without the least necessity or advantage. This opin- 
ion, so far as it has any influence, appears to invite the 
church into an intestinal commotion, from which it would 
be very difiicult for her, after a long and sore conflict, to 



125 



escape uninjured. This is a course of action wliicli the 
General Assembly have wisely and uniformly, through the 
whole period of her existence, endeavored to avoid, and in 
one instance, at least, which may be regarded as a fixed 
precedent, when it was forced upon her attention, she used 
the following language in disposing of the subject, A. D. 
1815. " A serious and conscientious person, a member of 
a Presbyterian congregation, who views the slavery of the 
negroes as a moral evil, highly offensive to God, and injurious 
to the interests of the Gospel, lives under the ministry of 
a person, or amongst a society of people, who concur with 
him in sentiment on the subject in general principles, yet, 
for particular reasons, hold slaves, and tolerate the practice 
in others. Ought the former of these persons, under the 
impressions and circumstances above described, to hold 
christian communion with the latter? 

"Whereupon, after due deliberation, it was resolved, 
that as the same difference of opinion with respect to slave- 
ry takes place in sundry other parts of the Presbyterian 
church, notwithstanding which they live in peace and 
charity, according to the doctrine and practice of the apostles, 
it is hereby recommended to all conscientious persons, and 
especially to those whom it immediately respects, to do the 
same." 

Another opinion of the General Assembly — see Digest — 
" Since Christ and his apostles did not make slaveholding a 
bar to communion, we, as a court of Christ, have no au- 
thority to do so ; since they did not attempt to remove it 
from the church by legislation, we have no authority to 
legislate upon the subject." 

It is very surprising, and much to be regretted, that a 
journal acting under the highest responsibility, from its lo- 
cation and connection, should permit any writer to exhibit 
on its pages such pro-slavery articles as directly assail the 
declarations of the General Assembly, which are so elo- 
quent and positive in condemning the evil system of slave- 
ry, and have so long, in uniform and decisive terms, pro- 
tested against it. 

We have recognised many individuals associated with 



126 



those usually denominated abolitionists of higli rank in our 
country for talent and character. In the integrity, patrio- 
tism, and philanthropy of their feelings in regard to slave- 
holding we have entertained great confidence. But it has 
always appeared to us too clear to he doubted, that univer- 
sal and immediate emancipation, which is understood to be 
a governing point in their policy, if it could be accom- 
plished, would be a most ruinous and unhappy measure for 
the slaves, for their owners, and for the whole country. If 
those who are deeply interested, would be enlightened by 
experience, they might refer with advantage to the history 
of the British effort among their slaves, in their "West In- 
dian colonies, during the years 1833 and 1838, to see the 
true character and ineffectiveness of such an experiment. 

The measures of the abolitionists seem to have been as 
inappropriate as their object was undesirable. Calm dis- 
cussion might have produced salutary results ; but severe 
strictures and harsh invectives against those who were con- 
nected with the slaveholding system entirely failed to aid 
the cause of freedom. From Elliot's account of the debates 
and transactions which occurred in 1787, at the adoption of 
the federal constitution, it appears evident that the feature 
relating to slavery, in its present form, was a peace mea- 
sure, a comjnomise, intended to be temporary, but to be 
strictly observed while in operation. All interference with 
that constitutional provision, except in an advisory manner, 
seems to be prohibited, and may justly be regarded by the 
south as offensive. But it cannot be concealed that there 
is a limit beyond which toleration of the slaveholding sys- 
tem cannot be endured, in consistence with the peace and 
happiness of the great body politic, either south or north. 
Colonization on the coast of Africa, if carried to its full 
extent, may do much to relieve difficulties already experi- 
enced and to remedy threatened evils. Whatever may be 
the reasonings and views of individuals in regard to several 
minor points involved above, no rational man, we suppose, 
can justly conclude, that while the subject is under discus- 
sion, and action partially suspended, the guilt of the crime 
can cease or be diminished. 



12T 



In regard to the most eligible method of securing liberty 
to the colored people of the United States, it may, perhaps, 
not be improper to observe here, that our abolition brethren 
seem to have made some great mistakes in their discussions, 
which have, we think, operated deceptively upon their own 
feelings, and may, perhaps, mislead others. 

They certainly represent the general condition of the 
slaves, and their character, a great deal below their proper 
standard. They make no allowance for the salutary results 
of recent measures, in some instances introduced by the 
owners of the slaves themselves, or with their full concur- 
rence, which have very much improved their condition, 
particularly in the Atlantic states, augmented their privi- 
leges, and brightened their prospects. These educational 
and moral advantages, accompanied with a divine influ- 
ence, have led to a great and visible religious reform, a 
very perceptible enlargement of the church communion, in 
all denominations, in which we would unfeignedly rejoice. 

Abolitionists are quite as much mistaken in supposing, 
that if, in accordance with their principal idea, immediate 
and universal emancipation of the slaves, should be accom- 
plished, and they be left to reside among the whites, given 
up to their own discretion as masters of the land, that they 
would lead peaceable, orderly, and quiet lives, and suffer 
their recent owners to enjoy a safe, tranquil, and happy 
abode in the midst of them. All restraint being removed, 
and a full scope afforded for the outbreak of resentments 
hitherto suppressed, and for the indulgence of the passion 
and violence natural to depraved and vicious men in a state 
of great ignorance and utter lawlessness, tumult and deso- 
lation may justly be expected as things of course, an ex- 
pectation justified by experience and observation. It is 
very well known that, notwithstanding the salutary restric- 
tions of law now in force, and all the comparatively happy 
improvements in education and moral culture now partially 
in operation, it is a work of some difiiculty to maintain 
among the slaves in the best managed districts such order, 
industry, and subjection to authority, as are indispensable 
to uniform peace and general prosperity. Among the best 



128 



instructed and disciplined companies of them, there are 
always found to be ringleaders in iniquity, strongly and 
habitually disposed to mischief, violence, and cruelty ; pos- 
sessing power, corruption, and artifice sufficient to instigate 
others to the foulest works of pollution, darkness, and 
blood. Against these desperate exhibitions, especially in 
the less pure and civilized districts, there is, there can be, 
no security. There is great reason to fear that the white 
population, in case of universal emancipation, would soon 
fall victims to irresistible violence, or be reduced, especially 
the females, to a condition more awful and repulsive than 
death. 

Besides, on the supposition that the slaves are to be im- 
mediately emancipated, they, of course, cease to be the 
property of their present owners ; their labor is withdrawn 
from them and from the field, and the land lies in great 
measure desolate. From the experiments of the English 
on their West Indian possessions, in 1833 and 1838, it is 
ascertained that uneducated and half savage negroes, set 
free in this manner, cannot be induced, by compensation, 
authority, or persuasion, to continue their labor, either for 
their own support or for the benefit of their recent masters. 
The whole land is reduced, as a certain consequence of im- 
mediate emancipation, to a state of desolation, and a large 
portion of the population to a condition of want and suf- 
fering, as the least evils to be expected. 

Here, also, the very grave question arises — how are these 
recent owners to be remunerated for the vast amount of 
property in that case to be wrested from them ? Estimate 
3,500,000 of colored people at the low average rate of §300 
per head, and they amount to more than one thousand 
millions of dollars, the first cost. Making provision for 
their support at least one year, leaving the contingencies 
of after years out of view, cannot require less than half 
that sum. AVho are to remunerate these spoliated slave 
owners, and sustain the poor and wretched victims of this 
prompt emancipation scheme, by advancing the sum of at 
least fifteen hundred millions of dollars? Or does this 
emancipation enterprise embrace, as an ulterior resort, as a 



129 



right, the monstrous idea of absolute spoliation and rob- 
bery without remuneration ?* These are a few of the ob- 
vious difficulties which oppose the prompt emancipation 
system, advocated by some of our best northern men. 

[N^ow, how much preferable, in every view we can take 
of it, is the plan of colonization on the western coast or 
tropical regions of Africa? But upon the benefits and 
many happy influences and results of colonization, at pre- 
sent, we shall not enlarge. The great advantages of colo- 
nization may be stated in few words. By emancipation, the 
slaves gain, perha,ps, freedom — technical liberty. Every- 
thing else is contingent and desperate. In colonization, the 
servant is made for ever free from his master, in circum- 
stances very pleasing, independent, and happy ; he is a free 
citizen, in fact in a free country; he may immediately be- 
come a freeholder of productive and valuable real estate, 
which several of the auxiliary branches of the American 
Colonization Society are ready gratuitously to bestow upon 
their emigrants, wherever found worthy of such bounty. 
Besides this, every colonist is, immediately after touching 
Liberian soil, a candidate for wealth and honor, for power 
and distinction, for the highest offices of trust and dignity, 
that the Liberian republic can confer. 

Whatever difficult and perplexing questions connected 
with this subject may arise in the minds or experience of 
inquirers, producing conflict of opinion and torpor in ac- 
tion, they are all the legitimate fruits and appendages of 
slavery, and instead of diminishing its guilt and enormity 
in any case, private or public, great or small, in the slight- 
est degree, do really increase and aggravate both. 

It cannot be denied that our southern neighbors occupy 
a very interesting and responsible relation to the slaver^^ 
system. They are burdened with an interest which is, in 
its own nature, essentially and immutably injurious as well 
as ivrong. But under the circumstances of the case, as ex- 
hibited by true history, they do not merit the universal and 

* This was a prominent feature in Mr. B. Burritt's speech at Trenton, last 
autumn. He alleged that the land would rise in value enough to pay for the 
slaves. 

M 



130 

acrimonious condemnation which, has been profusely lav- 
ished upon them by some northern men. 

To form a fair estimate of our relation to the institution 
of slavery in the United States, we must go back in its his- 
tory about one hundred years, to the period when this great 
field for slavery may be said to have been first opened and 
occupied. We shall probably all agree that the first com- 
panies of slaves introduced into the colonies were stolen 
from Africa, and that the population of Africa were by na- 
ture as free, and as well entitled to retain their freedom, as 
any other people upon earth. These first victims of slavery 
were suddenly and violently seized and deprived of their 
jyersonal liberty, to which they undoubtedly possessed a na- 
tural right. Their savage state did not invalidate or at all 
impair their claim to it. The truth is that, as a great moral 
principle, personal liberty cannot be touched by human au- 
thority without crime or forfeiture, not even by civilized 
legislation. Liberty is a primary, sovereign, and immutable 
right, founded in the will, and confirmed by the act of God. 
It is an original and inalienable element in the constitution 
of human nature, sustained by a feeling of consciousness, 
clear as an axiom. Pirates, plunderers, purchasers, own- 
ers, and traffickers are mere depredators on human rights, 
violent usurpers of man's most sacred, inherent, indestruc- 
tible immunities and prerogatives. The whole process of 
slavery, ab ovo, ad pomum., is a violent trespass upon man's 
dearest rights. But the whole system, however extensive 
and apparently fixed and permanent, is temporary and per- 
ishing with the using. For God has intended and announced 
that his Gospel shall make men free; that the Ethiopians, 
if compelled to despair of deliverance from human sympa- 
thy, justice, and power, shall find redress of their griev- 
ances by stretching forth their hands nrdo God. 



131 



CHAPTEE XYIII. 



General views of slavery — its origin, progress, early action of southern people 
in regard to it. — Petition of Virginians. — Constitutional provisions, difficulties, 
duties, etc., of the southern people. — Concluding remarks. 

In the commencement of this crusade against man, the 
number of imported slaves was augmented in proportion 
to the expansion of the market or increase of the demand 
for them. And this piratical importation has never entirely 
ceased until this hour. The stock, then, from which the 
colored population in our country first sprang was unques- 
tionably stolen, and carried away from Africa by violence 
to the American states. It is a settled principle in law, 
that stolen property is always stolen property, till restored to 
its rightful owner or primitive condition. Let it be sold, 
bartered, transferred, or change nominal owner and condi- 
tion, pass through all conceivable vicissitudes but dissolu- 
tion, and its true character remains unaltered, and must 
continue so while the immutable principles of truth, justice, 
and right remain unchanged. And all those descending 
from the original stock, by natural generation, inherit the 
same nature, assume the same moral features and rights, 
and take the same stand in relation to society. This rela- 
tion of free colored men cannot be obliterated or changed 
by any business transaction among men, or legislative ac- 
tion, against their will. E'o sale — no barter — no transfer 
by will or assignment — no attempt at hereditary transmis- 
sion, can invalidate the claims of the colored man to that 
inviolable freedom which his Creator has conferred upon 
him in common with others of fair complexion, unless he 
freely and sovereignly consent. 

But while the character and relation of the enslaved 
remain unchanged, the characters and relations of their 
avowed owners may undergo important revolutions, which 
must be well considered in estimating this subject. The 
first importers of African negroes as slaves were, unques- 
tionably, more grossly criminal in their cruel aggression 



132 



upon liuman rights than others who afterwards gradually 
became participators in this nefarious system. Receivers 
of stolen goods cannot escape heavy condemnation. Their 
easy reception of this plundered property, and ready par- 
ticipation in the fraudulent and oppressive measures w^hich 
speedily grew out of the trade, going to constitute the 
shocking system of slavery, hold them morally fast under 
a solemn and awful responsibility. And their successors, 
from age to age, occupy the same position. 

The government, who have from time to time tried to 
form and give sanction to this oppressive system of slave- 
holding, and attempted to furnish a legal directory for its 
management, are held responsible to God and man for 
their unrighteous agency, and all the popular acts and de- 
vices used for this purpose are void in God's sight. The 
present owners of slaves, who have in various ways been 
brought into connection with them, some by iuheritance, 
by marriage relation, or by uncontrollable circumstances, 
are comparatively innocent of this great transgression upon 
humanity. The institution, notwithstanding its glaring in- 
juries, having been so long sustained by their predecessors 
without hinderance or interdict, those now involved in it 
may justly be considered as having in some degree escaped 
from its guilt and responsibility. But the nature of slavery, 
in whatever place or whatever degree it exists, remains 
identically the same, unchanged in its nature and undimin- 
ished in its guilt. You may attempt to subdivide, distri- 
bute, and charge its criminality and desolation among the 
several and successive participants or perpetrators in the 
iniquity, wherever it exists or migrates, at sovereign plea- 
sure, but it remains, in its own nature, the same evil and 
guilty thing, and can never be changed without altering 
the constitution of the universe, changing the integral ele- 
ments of God's law and government over his intelligent 
moral and accountable creatures. In accomplishing a great 
work of violence, cruelty, and blood, there may be hun- 
dreds of accomplices, each incurring a greater or less pro 
rata share of guilt than his co-operators ; but in the aggre- 
gate, the crime and its guilt are the same, however many 
or few were engaged in its perpetration. 



133 



Moreover it must be taken into view, that originally 
slavery was not courted by tbe south. Evidence abounds 
to prove, that long before the American revolution, that 
institution was pertinaciously resisted by those districts 
which were most abundantly stocked with slaves, and well 
adapted means were employed by them to prevent their 
farther introduction into the colonies. Indeed efforts were 
made to diminish the number already in possession at an 
early day. Some conceived the idea of colonizing them 
on some unoccupied northern territory. Great Britain was 
unsuccessfully petitioned to receive them into their colony 
at Sierra Leone, Afterwards application was made to the 
Portuguese government for liberty to colonize them within 
their dominions in South America. After several abortive 
efforts to induce the British king and parliament to sanc- 
tion the colonial enactments, and to favor their subordinate 
measures to diminish the number of their slaves, and dis- 
possess themselves wholly of this undesirable population, 
the following petition from the colonial legislature of Vir- 
ginia was prepared, and forwarded to the British crown and 
cabinet, to exhibit the provincial feelings and enforce the 
patriotic desires and aims then prevalent in these colonies. 
Among the signers of this document, we find recorded the 
name of the illustrious Thomas Jefferson, who has been de- 
nominated the apostle of Freedom. The petitioners say : 

" We are encouraged to look up to the throne and im- 
plore your majesty's paternal assistance in averting a ca- 
lamity of a most alarming nature. 

" The irjaportation of slaves into the colonies from the 
eoast of Africa hath long been considered as a trade of great 
inhumanity, and under its ^present encouragement, we have too 
much reason to fear will endanger the very existence of 
your majesty's American dominions, 

"We are sensible that some of your majesty's subjects, 
of Great Britain, may reap emoluments from this sort of 
traffic ; but when we consider that it greatly retards the set- 
tlement of the colonies with more useful inhabitants, and 
may in time have the most destructive influence, we pre- 
sume to hope that the interests of a few will be disregarded 

M* 



134 



when placed in competition with the security and happi- 
ness of such numbers of your majesty's dutiful and loyal 
subjects. 

" Deeply impressed with these sentiments, we most 
humbly beseech your majesty to remove all those restraints 
on your majesty's governors of this colony which inhibit 
their assenting to such laws as might check so very perni- 
cious a commerce.""^ 

This humble request, which fully evinces the feelings 
prevalent in these colonies at that day, A. D. 1T72, was 
treated with contempt by the king and cabinet ; and that 
indignant rejection operated as one of the numerous, if not 
principal causes which led to the v^ar of Indejyendence. The 
British continued to force slaves particularly upon the 
southern districts of this country, notwithstanding their 
applications for relief, even after the Revolutionary war. At 
the adoption of the federal constitution, the number of 
slaves in the states was estimated at about 757,000. The 
greatest difficulty, at that memorable crisis, was experi- 
enced in disposing of the slaves. Immediate emancipa- 
tion was pronounced both ineligible and impracticable. 
The slaveholders in general would have been glad to dis- 
pose of their interest in them, but there was no purchaser. 
The states, impoverished and in debt by the war, were too 
poor to buy. The owners, for the same reason, could not 
make them a gratuity to the country, as their property con- 
sisted mainly in this kind of stock. Besides, the slaves 
were attached to the soil, which would have been made 
almost entirely valueless by removing them from it, as they 
were almost the only cultivators and producers in the south- 
ern states. An erroneous impression then already existed, 
that the land in southern latitudes could not be cultivated, 
nor their peculiar crops raised by any but colored men. On 
the whole, the slaves were thus left as a species of entail- 
ment upon the southern people. This was the general as- 
pect of the case. That there were many selfish and unfeel- 
ing monsters at that time mixed up in the mass of southern 



* See Appeal of R. Walsh, p. 317, 8vo. 



135 



population, who courted slavery and rejoiced in it a§ a me- 
dium of profit and ultimate speculation, is not denied. 

That feature of the constitution of the United States, 
which gives the slaves a pro rata share by suffrage in con- 
gressional representation, was resisted in the convention of 
1787, and admitted finally as a temporary expedient or 
compromise to harmonize many conflicting views supposed 
to be otherwise irreconcilable, and to be restricted, while 
left in operation, to the thirteen states constituting the 
Union, each one acting according to its own discretion and 
for its own individual benefit. In this transaction, the 
body of the people of the states assembled by representa- 
tion in the convention, all substantially concurred, 

"We humbly conceive, therefore, that the southern people 
ought to be in very great degree exonerated from the charge 
of criminality in the first introduction of slaves or the 
slave system. Their fault lies chiefly in continuing it be- 
yond the period contemplated, and in neglecting to pro- 
vide for the improvement, the elevation, and happiness of 
the slaves. It is true that a multitude of individuals may 
be charged with more than indifierence and neglect to- 
wards these objects, with positive oppression and cruelty 
in many forms. How far this evil may extend, we are not 
prepared to say; but this is certain, that its range and 
its rigor are both undergoing a very perceptible and happy 
diminution, particularly in the seaboard states. 

The duty of slaveholders, at the present crisis, appears 
as clear as a beam of light. The general peace and pros- 
perity of the nation — the true interest and happiness of the 
southern people themselves — and the just interests and 
claims of the slaves, all combine, with great power, to re- 
quire of the slaveholding states that all practicable means 
of improvement in useful knowledge, in business skill and 
habits, and christian knowledge and virtu(^, should be ex- 
tended to the slave population, preparatory to tlieir eman- 
cipation. 

The noble leaders in this humane and patriotic system 
of reform, which has already obtained happy entrance and 
progress in many places, have only to persevcic and carry 



136 



out, by a wise and prudent course of philanthropy and chris- 
tian zeal, what they have so auspiciously commenced, and 
under a beneficent Providence, they may anticipate a most 
honorable and happy result. 

As a motive and auxiliary to the course here humbly 
suggested, it seems proper to state, that the colonization of 
the colored people on the coast of Africa, now considerably 
advanced and in happy progress, presents to the colored 
race, scattered abroad, a most interesting and alluring in- 
vitation to return to their parent land, and enjoy there a 
peaceful, independent, and happy home, without money 
and without price, for themselves and their posterity for 
ever. By assisting to carry out this vast enterprise of 
mercy, the slave owners and all men of benevolence and 
kindness will indulge their noblest charity, and secure to 
themselves endless distinction and honor. 

In conclusion we observe, that the following passage in 
the argument before us, on page 302, strikes us with great 
surprise : " We have little apprehension that any one can 
so far mistake our object or the purport of our remarks, as 
to suppose that we regard slavery as a desirable institution. 
The extinction of slavely is as sincerely desired by us as 
by any of the abolitionists." 

The preceding parts of the article, in general, may be 
understood with tolerable ease. But the object and piurport 
of these sentences are certainly quite obscure, because en- 
tirely irreconcilable with the letter and spirit of this elabo- 
rate vindication of slavery. If the writer intended to dis- 
avow the opinions he had written, he ought to have done 
it in clear and unequivocal language. If he really consid- 
ers slavery not "a desirable institution," why does he argue 
so pertinaciously in its favor? If sincere in this partial 
recantation, every one would suppose it must be because 
he saw something in it which he felt to be wrong. But he 
frequently and positively asserts the contrarj- — no sin, no 
crime! If he heartily desires "the extinction of slaveri/," as 
he here alleges, why did he so elaborately and protractedly, 
through thirty pages, endeavor to justify and vindicate the 
institution? AViiy does he oppose and denounce the dis- 



13T 



tinguislied men of I^ew England, of New York, of Ken- 
tucky, who wrote with such peculiar eloquence and power 
to accomplish the extinction of slavery, the very evil to which 
he here avows so much hostility ? "Why does he so strong- 
ly approve the silence of Christ and his apostles in regard 
to slavery in its worst forms? even tells us, as we understand 
him, that if Christ had opposed slavery, he would have 
been the minister of sin ! He says Christ and his apostles, 
in their silence, in their approving spirit towards slavery, 
did right. But here it appears he is opposed to their action, 
and desires, as much as any abolitionist, the extinction of the 
very evil which he tells us they rather promoted than other- 
wise. He claims Christ and his apostles, and the sacred 
Scriptures, as entirely favorable to slavery; but here he 
runs into direct and violent collision with both. These are 
mysteries which we acknowledge our inability to solve, 
because we cannot reconcile them with either the letter or 
the spirit of his essay ; nor do we feel more competent to 
harmonize them with either common sense or common 
consistency. 

Perhaps a new mode of argumentation is about being 
introduced into our schools of science ; that is, if you wish 
to show a dislike to slavery, even abolition zeal and desire 
for its extinction, you must manufacture the strongest article 
you can in its vindication, for rectilinear direct reasoning, 
substitute the inverse order. 

Whatever may have been the opinions and aims of the 
writer, this to us seems certain, that he has laid down such 
principles, assumed such facts, drawn such inferences, and 
raised such arguments in support of slaveholding, as justly 
to call forth the remarks here presented. 



